The Raptor Girl
by iamawesomeanduknowit
Summary: Amber Grant was in it just for the money. She never expected to be partnered up with an ex-Navy, egoistic yet attractive partner and work for the seemingly perfect Parks Operation Manager. But considering her history with the island, and the demons that still haunt her, Project I.B.R.I.S, may just be her undoing... [Owen x OC with some Clawen too.]
1. The Offer

**I finally am rewriting this! So, thank you Mcduffie145 and NightHawk the Warrior for the tips and for reading my work.**

 **Disclaimer- I do not own Jurassic Park/ World. If you're reading this, please don't sue me Spielberg.**

* * *

2012

"Dad, are you finishing up or what?" I asked my father, Alan Grant. He likes to analyze the fossils manually, even though we already have computers to do that kind of stuff. I walk outside my tent, covering my nose and mouth with my scarf, to protect myself from the dust. In Colorado at our dig site, there is always dust.

"Yeah, coming sweetie-" he said, but I cut him off.

"You should really let the computers, you know," I tell him. "They aren't here to just waste space."

"I know that, but just-"

"Dad, we've been using these things since like forever. You've gotta trust them."

"Yeah, but-"

"C'mon, you shouldn't be in the sun." I dragged him inside the tent.

"Drink this," I said as I handed him a glass of water. "You look dehydrated."

He takes the glass and drinks it up. "I'm supposed to be your father sweetheart," he chuckles.

"Yeah, well, what can we do? Mom's not here, is she? Someone's going to have to take care of you."

All of a sudden, the dust outside starts swirling around and covering up all the work we've done in the past few weeks. I run out of the tent screaming.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? You're spreading the dust all around; that took us weeks to dig!" I yell out, but I don't really think they heard me because my voice was drowned out by the helicopter blades. It lands on the sand, just missing our dig site.

The engines stop, and a man decked in a very fancy white suit comes out.

"Ah, Hello Ms. Grant! What a delight to meet you!" he says as he grabs my hand and shakes it. I wipe off the dust from my hands.

"Excuse me sir, but tourists are not allowed here, and you've covered up almost half of our work! So I suggest you-"

"Oh, terribly sorry about that, uh, my landing skills aren't very good," He says sheepishly

"Who're you talking to Amber?" my dad calls out behind me, emerging from the tent. "Oh no. no, no, no."

"Ah! Mr. Grant! I wish to speak to the both of you."

"And you are?" my dad asks, waving his arms around.

"I'm Simon Masrani, CEO of Masrani Global Corporation. I've also acquired InGen a few years ago and-"

"Okay, hold on. Do you mean InGen as in the Jurassic Park InGen?" I interrupt him.

"Yes. That one indeed, but let's not dwell in the past. I've been able to acquire the island, and we've started anew. I'm sure you've heard of Jurassic World."

"Yes I have. But when will you understand that the dinosaurs were wiped out for a reason? Keeping them enclosed no matter how isolated; it's not safe for any one," My dad adds. _I agree with you dad._

"Don't worry about that, Mr. Grant, we've used state-of-the-art technology, and I can personally assure you that this is much safer than before."

"Let's get straight to the point," I start. "You've definitely not come for some advertising program here, that's for sure. So what is it that you want?" I ask him, folding my hands.

"Very perceptive of you, Ms. Grant," he says. Okay buddy, enough with the diplomatic approach. Get straight to the point.

"We want you." And he does get straight to the point. But I am a little confused.

"Um.., you want _me?_ " I nervously ask. No one has ever asked for me specifically before, it was always Alan Grant this, and Alan Grant that. I had to be sure. Everyone knows about the Jurassic Park incident; that's practically made him a celebrity.

Dad stands up a little straighter, now clearly interested.

"Yes," Masrani confirms. "We want you to work for us."

"And what makes you think I'll accept?"

"We've got an offer you simply can't resist."

"And that is?"

"Your dig will be fully funded by InGen; which will give you publicity as well," he said, looking directly in my father's eyes. Money. That is the one thing that we do not possess. Most of it is always spent on equipment, and the investors immediately pulled out because of the, ah, 'live specimens' introduced.

"As for you, Ms. Grant, you'll be paid about 10000$ a month excluding taxes, a bungalow, a company-issued vehicle, a fully paid sick leave-"

"I'm in at sick-leave." I state.

"Please join us, we really- wait what?" he looks at me a bit puzzled.

"I accept." I hold out my hand for him to shake.

Dad steps in. "We'll need to discuss a few things, can you wait?"

"Sure." He claps his hand, and a man comes in with a chair and a cold glass of lemonade. "Take all the time you need. I'll just stay here." He sits down on the chair and reads a newspaper. Sure must be nice being rich.

We walk inside the tent.

Dad wastes no time.

"WHY DID YOU ACCEPT?" he kind of shouts.

"Dad! The pay! We need to continue our research, don't we? You do want the Paleontological Society Medal, don't you?"

"Well, yeah, but- That's beside the point? You do know what happened the last time we went, don't you?" he looks at the side of my neck.

I was 14 years old when I was attacked by a velociraptor. What an irresponsible parent, you'd think. But like I said again, money was pretty tight, and we couldn't afford a babysitter for who-knows-how-many-days. Mom and dad did leave me with a friend the first time the left for Jurassic Park, but the next time, I was pretty grown up and I wanted to go, and mom, well she did not want to even listen to what dad had to say.

The rescue mission went fairly okay, if you can call going on a monster-infested island okay, until Billy stole the raptor eggs. That was when things went bad. Really, really bad. We somehow escaped, but all battles leave scars, and this one was no less.

"Yes dad, it happened to _me_ , of course I remember. But we need the funds. Without them, we'd have to close up the entire facility, and _think._ What would happen to Billy? Ella? Percy? Our team?" I try to convince him.

He thinks. "You're right. And this is your choice. But I'd give up my research for you to be safe."

"I know that dad," I say as I pull him in a hug.

"Remember that I'm not allowing you to go." he held my shoulders, and kissed my forehead.

"I'm an adult, dad. I can take care of myself. Besides, you love the park, so much!"

"Shut up!" he says as he playfully tousled my hair.

"So I'm taking it as a yes?"

"If you want to, but I'm not happy with this. What if you meet a boy?"

"Oh my gosh, dad!"

"I wonder how Veronica is going to react to this." He awkwardly changes the subject. Dad was always a little overprotective when it came to boys.

"Let's hope not as bad as you do." I shoot back.

I walk out the tent.

Masrani gets up. "Ah Ms. Grant! So what do you say?"

"I accept." He looks very happy. "With one condition." His face drops.

"And that is?" He looks questioningly.

"I choose when I leave."

He relaxes. "Sure. We'll give you a six-month contract for now. You can extend it whenever you want."

"That's done then."

We shake hands.

"I'll look forward to seeing you on the park."

"As will I." I add.

Just as he is about to leave, I ask him, "What will I be working on?"

He smirks. "You'll find out soon, Grant. We'll e-mail you the contract by this evening or tomorrow."

"Great," I said as I thought to myself. _What kind of mess had I gotten into?_

Sarah comes by, soon enough, and when she finds out, her expressions were more like,

"That's soo not fair!"

I laugh. "You know Sarah, you can come visit anytime you want."

"But you're going only for a few months!"

My sister was the complete opposite of my parents. She always got excited whenever anyone even mentioned Jurassic Park. She wasn't that interested in paleontology as I was, but she was a great writer. I hoped that she'd get published soon.

"So," I continue. "Who's the boyfriend?"

"How did you figure that out?" she looked at me shocked.

I laugh. "You just told me."

She scrunches up her face into a mean expression, but fails. "Not cool Amber, not cool."

"Who is he?" I ask her

Her face turns red like a beetroot. "Go on," I tease her.

"Don't tell this to mom-"

"Don't tell mom what?" my mother asks as she enters the house. Being the excellent elder sister that I was, I cover for Sarah.

"Um… let's just say that I'm moving."

 _You owe me big time Sarah._ I glare at her. She mouths thank you.

My mother gets a bit of a shock, though. She drops her coat. "YOU WHAT?"

"You'll need to sit down." I pull out a chair for her.

"Simon Masrani, the new CEO of InGen paid a visit." I continue.

"And? I'm not sure how that involves you moving?" she has a very surprised look on her face.

"He said he wanted me to work for him."

"Oh no. NO. No. my daughter is not going to be a personal-" I sigh. My mom always jumps to quick conclusions.

"No mom. I'm going to be working as a researcher."

"Thank god- Where exactly are you going?" she crosses her hands and stands in a very intimidating position.

"Jurassicworld," I mumble out.

"Where?" she said raises her eyebrows. The expression that follows; it was scary. She is the scariest woman I've had to deal with. Her gray eyes look like they could see right inside your soul.

Gathering whatever amount of courage left in me, I say " **Jurassic World**." And then I knew I was doomed.

She starts yelling at me telling me that it was very dangerous, and that she thought I had some common sense left in me, and how could I betray her, and on and on.

Dad walks in and grabs her shoulders, and she thankfully stops.

"I told her the exact same thing, Vera; but she went out and told the guy she accepted."

"Mom, we really need the money! And trust me on this one, the new place is safe! Have you heard of one incident since it opened?"

"Well no, but that doesn't mean-"

"Relax mom. It'd be a great experience for me. Besides, I'm only going for 6 months at first."

"Wait, what?" Dad looks at me, surprised.

"Yes. I've got to stay there only for 6 months. Then if I wish, I can extend the contract. The pay I'm getting is a good $10000 per month. I'll be able to make $60000 in 6 months! And let's not forget that I'm getting a fantastic house, a car, a sick leave-"

"You had me on sick leave. Is it fully paid?" mom says. I hold back a laugh.

"Of course it is." I say trying hard to maintain a straight face.

"Did Alan try to talk you out of it?"

"What, can you go back to the past or something?" Dad says to her, completely bewildered.

"No honey, only you would be as stupid as to stop her."

This time dad raises his eyebrows. "Really?"

It was time for me to intervene.

"Cut it out, guys. He's mailing me the contract. If all goes well, I'll be moving out the next week."

They look at me shocked. "What! The next week! You can't be serious!"

"I'm very serious. Maybe they want me to start working as soon as possible?"

"But why would they want to do that?"

"I don't know."

Dad hunched his shoulder, in defeat. "Fine. Seeing that I have no say in this, I've got to agree with your mom here and send you."


	2. The Journey- part 1

_A week later._

I was running around frantically searching for my missing socks. I had an entire week to prepare, but somehow I ended up procrastinating, and I'm literally stuffing everything I can find in my bag.

Sarah comes out holding a gray sock.

"Is this what you're looking for?" she asks.

"Oh yes," I cry out in relief. "There it is." I snatch the sock from her grasp and go back to the tent. I somehow manage to stuff everything in 5 bags, and then I haul them to the car.

I hope I have everything I need. Dad's going to drive me to the airport, from where I have to catch a plane to get to Miami, from where I'll be cruising to Isla Nublar.

"Need a hand with that?" a warm voice asks.

"No, I can handle it," I say, not even caring to look behind me to see who it was.

"Moving already, and not even saying goodbye to your best friend?"

I freeze at that instant and turn around. It was Charlie.

I throw down the bag in my hand and hug him. He hugs me back. It had been a couple of years since I last saw him, and it was great to see him again.

"How's my favorite doctor doing?" I ask him playfully.

He had chosen to pursue a career in medicine, and had graduated by now. Charlie was my best friend since we were 3. He's the same age as I am, but he's 2 months older and he makes sure I never hear the end of it.

"Not bad, not bad. But what about you? You're moving out and you didn't even tell me?" he challenges me.

I sigh. "I just got the offer a week ago. But what are you doing here?"

"Alan told me to drop you off. I was visiting mom, and just stopped by for a quick hello. Your dad absolutely hates machines, so I decided to help him there. "

"Well thanks." I say as pack the final bag into the trunk, and close the door.

"Any time."

He gets into the driver's seat and starts the engine. I sit in the seat beside him.

"Bye honey," dad waves from the dig.

"Don't get into trouble, sis," Sarah yells out.

I laugh at her. "Do I ever?"

As we pull away from the dig, I realize I'm missing my family already. The car drive was pretty uneventful. Charlie tells me about his new job at the hospital, and how he wants to open his own clinic someday.

"So, how's aunt Ellie?"

"Well, she's fine. It's dad I worry about."

"I can say the same for my father. It's like he's too stubborn to accept some help."

"Didn't you have a girlfriend?"

"Lilith and I… we broke up. Things didn't work out between us."

"Oh," I say awkwardly. We don't talk for the rest of the ride. What am I supposed to say?

The next time he even opens his mouth is when we reach the airport.

As he helps me unload my luggage from the car, he speaks, "Take care of yourself, Amber. You have a knack for getting into trouble. Without my help."

"What can I do Charlie? Trouble must really, really like me. I always end up in there and you know that."

He chuckles. "But the place where you're going, you might just want to take it down a notch. You and dinosaurs don't really have a good history."

I shudder at the memory of the time my father took me to the remains of Jurassic park with the Kirby's. I promised myself I would never go back. But here I am, already on my way to the new and improved Jurassic park- Jurassic World. Where I'm going, I'm going to need all the luck I can get.

"You can say that again."

"I'm going to miss you Amber." I can tell from the tone of his voice that he's sad.

"Come here you big bowl of mush." I open my arms and he embraces me.

"Be safe," he adds as we break away. He goes back to the car and drives off.

* * *

I walk inside, and check in my bags. Then I get a coffee and plop myself on one of the waiting area chairs. Turns out my flight's a little late.

For someone who's supposed to spare no expense, this is pretty cheap.

When my flight finally does arrive, I almost cry out in happiness. I've lost 2 hours of travelling time! But lost time is made up for quality, I get first class seats.

Once I board the plane, I pack my carry-ons and settle down in my seat.

"Hello there," the person near me greets me. She was a middle-aged woman probably in her late 30s. She smiles at me; her blue eyes crinkling.

"Hey," I offer a hand for her to shake. She shakes it.

"Heading to Costa Rica?"

"Yep"

"Let me guess, Jurassic World?"

"Yessir I am going there"

"Oh."

I think she probably wanted to speak some more, but the air-hostess starts making the announcements.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the Fasten Seat Belt sign. If you haven't already done so, please stow your carry-on luggage underneath the seat in front of you or in an overhead bin. Please take your seat and fasten your seat belt. And also make sure your seat back and folding trays are in their full upright position," The air hostess says.

 _Here we go,_ I think as I buckle in my seat belt.

"If you are seated next to an emergency exit, please read carefully the special instructions card located by your seat. If you do not wish to perform the functions described in the event of an emergency, please ask a flight attendant to reseat you."

"We remind you that this is a non-smoking flight. Smoking is prohibited on the entire aircraft, including the lavatories. Tampering with, disabling or destroying the lavatory smoke detectors is prohibited by law."

"If you have any questions about our flight today, please don't hesitate to ask one of our flight attendants. Thank you."

Susan speaks to me after the announcements, as I read the information leaflet.

"My brother just went over there last week. Some weird training contract," she says. "These people, they never learn when to stop." She rolls her eyes. _Yes ma'am, I agree with you there._

"I'm going for a similar role over there as well." I explain to her, breaking away from the sheet. _This brochure really can make anyone scared. So many emergency procedures, it's almost intimidating. No wonder so many people hate air travel._

"Well that's nice," she says, and then opens her bag and takes out a book to read.

And after that I turn on a movie and watch it till I nod off.

I was so deep in sleep that I didn't even realize I slept until an air-hostess woke me up for dinner.

"Rough day hon?" she asks me in her sweet voice.

"It wasn't _that bad,_ but it was a little rough." I tell her, accepting the plate she gave me. By that time, the lady beside me had already finished her meal.

"Hey, nice to see you awake. I'm Susan." she introduces herself.

'I'm Amber Grant." I introduce myself.

"Oh! You're the daughter of Alan Grant! I knew I'd seen you somewhere!" she excitedly says, earning us a few stares. _Oh no,_ _Not this again._

The last time this happened, I was late to school by 3 hours.

I try to calm her down. "Shh ma'am, I really don't want that kind of attention right now," I whisper to her.

She looks a little disheartened, but then regains her composure. "Oh, sorry, it's just that my son absolutely adores dinosaurs, and ever since my brother got a job at Jurassic World, my son is totally in love with the park.

"So, what're you watching next?" I ask her, leaning into her screen a bit, trying to get a glimpse

"Ooh, this movie is amazing," she tells me. "My son is a big fan of these series."

We start watching one movie. That turns into 5. Eventually, we watch so many more until both of us are passed out on the seats. I think at some point the air-hostess must have turned off the screen, but I was in deep sleep by then.

The next morning, the pilot's announcement wakes me up. Susan is already awake beside me.

"Welcome to Miami International Airport. I hope you enjoy your stay in Florida." He announces. I woke up just in time, it seemed.

"Nice meeting you Amber," she says.

"You too Susan. I'd love to meet this brother of yours."

She laughs. "Oh trust me you don't." then we exchange email addresses and promise to keep in teach.

I go over to luggage bay and sit down, waiting for my stuff to come.

Finally, my luggage starts arriving, and I barely manage to stack them on top of each other. Boy was this difficult. Struggling, I reach the gate and then realize that I have to hail a taxi. I went over to the taxi booth, but it turns out that there is not a single one available. There was a three hour waiting line. I had to get to the docks in two. Too bad.

So there I stood, in the hot scorching sun, waiting for anything remotely close to a yellow taxi come by. At least I have dad's lucky hat to keep me company.

"Having trouble finding a taxi, hon?" I turn around, searching for the owner of the voice. Turns out it's the friendly air hostess.

"Yeah, ma'am," I reply. "I've been waiting here for ages."

"Well, where're you going?"

"The docks."

"Hmm," she thinks for a while. "You know what? I think you should come with me. Dave is coming to pick me up, and I'll drop you off at the docks."

I get up with a jerk. _Wow, I'm meeting a lot of nice people today._

"Thank you so much!" I jump out in happiness. "That'd be great!"

She laughs. "Well here he comes now."

Dave, it turns out, was her brother. He looked like a typical Miami Surfer; blond hair, heavily tanned skin, heck he was even wearing surfer shorts. The only thing he was missing was a surfer board.

"Hey," he greets me with a smile. Then he looks at my luggage. "Holy shit!" he cries out. "That won't fit in my car!"

She looks at him menacingly. He backs down a bit. Then he turns to face me.

"I'm sorry, but you've got a lot of bags. Those definitely won't fit in my car along with my sis's bags, but I have a friend who drives. Maybe he can pick you up, yeah?"

I simply nod my head. There really wasn't much I could say. The air hostess piles in her bags, and then gives me a happy goodbye, and then the car speeds off.

Thankfully, I don't have to wait long for this taxi. I had only like about 20 minutes to reach the docks. After a few wrong turns, and a couple of red signals, we finally reach the docks.

 _Yay!_ I think. _Now I only have another 24 hours of seasickness to look forward to!_


	3. The Journey- part 2

Let me tell you something. Cruises are not as romantic or pleasurable as they are shown in the movies. First of all, the boat is constantly turning and swaying. It was hard for me to even stand still. Thank goodness I didn't suffer from nausea.

Then you have to get used to how crowded the place is. I mean it's like half of India's population decided to go to Jurassic World right now. When I meet Simon Masrani again, I'm going to tell him how much work the cruise actually needs. Spare no expense? Yeah right.

At first glance, the 'Hammond' was pretty sweet, but then only when you venture inside do you realize what kind of a ship it was.

With lots of difficulty I manage to locate my room. I open the door only to find a girl wearing earphones playing some real loud music.

"Excuse me," I look at her, crossing my arms assuming a stern face. She doesn't hear me. " **Excuse me?"** I sort of shout. That gets her attention. "This is my room." I tell her.

She pulls the pins out of her ears. "Oh really? Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but this is my room. "

I sit down on the bed and shove my ticket in her face. "See? Compartment 6-N"

She turns around and gets out her own ticket. "See?" She adds with an arrogant smirk. "Compartment 6-N."

Then she resumes listening to her music. I'm getting really riled up by this girl. She was getting on my nerves. But I control myself. _After all, it's only for a day, right?_

I grab the opposite bed and sit down. Whatever luggage I brought was only the essentials. The rest of my stuff was going to be shipped later.

Dropping the bags at both sides of my bed, I unpack my laptop and check my emails. At least this place has Wi-Fi.

I see the attachment Jurassic World sent me. I open it and read. The dim light makes reading difficult, and the swaying of the boat doesn't help at all.

But I manage, and so far there was nothing really unexpected. I was to be an asset-consultant, and I had to monitor and research whatever dinosaurs they give me. Nothing I couldn't do.

My roommate had finally shut off the music and she surprisingly walked over to me.

"I'm sorry for whatever happened right now, I was rude."

"Bad day, huh?"

"Yep. I wasn't expecting to stay with someone else."

"Neither was I."

There is some silence. I decide to break the tension.

"I'm Amber."

"I'm Lilith."

 _Lilith. I know that name._ So I, being the blunt person that I was, pop the question without even a second thought.

"Lilith, do you happen to know a certain Charlie Degler by any chance?"

Her eyes widen to size the of dish saucers. "Ye-Yes," her eyes well up with tears. _Yep. And she's the one._ But then she looks at me with an expression that conveys pure hatred. I don't really get scared, but her expression evoked fear inside me.

Lilith was pretty, no doubt. She had lovely golden locks, and sterling silver eyes, and she had a great physique. Exactly Charlie's type. So why would he ditch her? And why is she looking at me like that?

"YOU," she glares at me. "You're Amber Grant?" she asks me, but I'm pretty sure she knows that.

"Y-yes." I nervously say. Her glare was more intense than what it was previously, so I do the logical thing. I run away from there. _Charlie and I were going to have a conversation he would not like._

I don't return back until I'm completely sure that she's fast asleep. No wonder she was rude, she was dumped by none other than my best friend. And I think it had something to do with me.

I look out the window at the sky. The moon was a beautiful white orb, shining with the stars glittering around it. The tranquil sea below, the serene moon above, this already sounds like I'm writing a poem. But the scene was poetic. And it lulled me to sleep.

The next day, I guess I slept in a little, so by the time I woke up, Lillith wasn't there. Thank God. I jump out of bed and get brushing my teeth. In about half an hour, I get out of the shower, dress myself, and sit by the table. Lillith still hadn't returned by now, but I wasn't really worried.

I head out to the main deck; some fresh air would clear up my head. I walk over to the railings and I lean on holding them tight. I inhale the salty smell of the sea, remembering my first visit to Isla Sorna with my parents. We had arrived there by a small airplane and it was way faster than this cruise. However, we only had an hour to go on this cruise, and I could see the faint outline of Isla Sorna.

After about half an hour, I decide to return back to the room. I start packing my stuff back into my suitcases. Lilith was already inside, but she was sleeping. No problems there.

As I pack, I think about what my family must be doing back home.

Dad would definitely be on the dig; along with Percy and Billy. Billy was on the dig ever since I was 12; 6 years since my parents' first visit to Jurassic Park. He was always the big brother for me, and he's been with us the second time we visited Isla Sorna.

Percy on the other hand, was the latest addition to our crew, but he's been our family since day one. He was actually just another high school intern, and he barely even spoke when he was on the dig. But dad recognized the hidden talent in him, and somehow, Dad convinced him to stay for the next month too. Percy was pretty broke, but with funds from us he attended the Montana State University, and was the Valedictorian of his batch. He got way better offers than what we could give him, one even from Jurassic world, But he stuck with us, and is sort of dad's left hand man, if not his right.

Mom would be at the university. She kind of grew bored with the daily routine of the dig, so she decided to become a professor, and lectures at the Montana State University. Her students occasionally help out at the dig, and it was one of those students who ended up marrying Billy, Cheryl or something. Well, they're doing great, and I think they're having a son sometime soon.

And Sarah, she's the youngest of us. She's only 14, but she definitely inherited mom's brains. She's a kind of a loner, and she's got quite the sass on her, but she's pretty awesome and a great listener. You can always count on her for advice. Because she was the loner, she got bullied quite a lot; but I certainly do remember that one day when she kicked the bully right in the groins and then punched him until his nose broke. She got suspended for 5 days since that incident; but no one has ever even complimented her since that day.

 _'Ladies and gentlemen',_ the captain's voice echoes through the ship. _'Welcome to Jurassic World'._ I look outside the window to revel in the new and improved site. I manage to get out only one word. Wow.

' _We have reached the main port. Please stand in an orderly fashion outside on the deck'._ I grab my bags and haul them over to the deck. There was a really long line, but then I saw another door with the sign 'employees only'. **I** am an employee, just not officially yet. Maybe I'm supposed to get my instructions there?

I walk over to that exit where a woman with red hair and a clipboard approaches me.

"Welcome to Jurassic World. You must Amber Grant."

I look at her questioningly.

"How do you know my name?"

She sighs. "You're our newest employee. Of course we'd know your name and your appearance."

This woman seemed to be extremely organized and not even a single hair on her head was out of place as opposed to my messy hair in a ponytail. I felt a little self-conscious, but at least I was 5'7" without heels.

"I'm Claire Dearing, and I'm the park operations manager here. Please follow me." She had a commanding voice, like a person wanting everything in place.

"Uh Okay," I then point over to my nags. "What about my stuff?"

"Oh right. Don't worry about that, it'll be taken care of." Then she turns to a man behind her and speaks something in Spanish. The man nods, and calls over another man who then begin picking up my bags.

"Thanks." I mutter to the men.

"De Nada," he says and hurries of, not before giving me a short smile.

Claire turns and I follow her. We walk till we reach a pretty important looking office. The building was all glass, and I must say it was impressive. We get in an elevator, all the way up to the 50th floor. When I do step out, I am greeted by the lovely scent of lemon-grass. We walk on the Kashmiri carpet, and finally reach a pretty ornate door. Claire knocks at the door.

"Come in!" a recognizable male voice says.

"Mr. Masrani, she's here." Claire says, proving my assumptions.

"Ah. Yes. Please come in. Welcome. I hoped the journey went well." He calls out, and I step into his very modern office. The back wall was complete glass, and gave a beautiful view of the island.

"Nice view," I comment.

"Thanks. Tea? Coffee? Orange Juice?" he asks me, a waiter bringing out the aforementioned refreshments.

"I'll have the juice please," I take the glass and settle down in the chair in front of him. Claire sits by my side.

"So. How does it look like now?" he asks me, with curiosity.

"I must say, it is pretty improved, but you really need to do something about the cruise. I will _not_ be going through that a second time."

He laughs. "Sure"

"Apart from that well, nothing's really changed much." I set down the glass of orange juice back into the tray.

Turning to Claire he said, "Did you give her the packet?"

"Not yet sir. I'll give it after this."

"Okay. Well Ms. Grant, I hope you have a pleasant stay here," He said, almost as if he was wishing me luck.

"Well, considering my past with this island, I hope I do too."

I leave the office with Claire, and she takes me to one of the lower levels of the building. Once we reach our destination, she hands me a file.

"Well Ms. Grant, please sign this, and we will get to your living quarters."

"Call me Amber." I sign the pages as she talks to me.

"Okay Amber. So, have you read everything now?"

"Sure." I said, as something caught my attention. "Wait a minute. I have to TRAIN DINOSAURS?"

"Yes. Didn't you read that page before?" She asks me

"No, it wasn't there in the email you sent me. You mentioned I had to be an asset consultant, whatever that means, but this," I point to the contract. "This is something totally different."

"Lowery probably forgot to scan that page. I'll send those pages to you later." She casually waves her hand as if what I just said meant nothing.

"What do you want me to do, teach them circus tricks?" I exclaim. This was getting frustrating. How can one not mention such an important detail while recruiting new employees?

Claire rolls her eyes. "I'll email you the pages he didn't scan. So come along already." She says, exasperatedly.

"Fine. What kind of dinosaurs will I be working with?" I ask her. The pay. Amber, focus on the pay. And the car. And the villa. And the sick leave. Anything but this.

"Let me check." She said, and then looked at something on her board. "Yes. You and Mr. Grady will be working with Velociraptors."

 _HOLY SHIT._


	4. The Partner

" WHAT? No, no, no ,no. I do NOT work with raptors, okay? I like them dead. Not alive and with brains smart enough to know what to kill." I almost have a mental break-down.

"Well, that's too bad. You can't go back since you already signed the contract." She looks at me, her hands crossed over. She was almost like a mini-mom.

"Please no. I'll work with dinosaur shit but not this." I beg her, hoping she'll reconsider.

"I'm sorry-" she begins but I knew that drastic measures had to be taken. I started shouting at poor Claire.

"HOW CAN YOU DO THIS? HOW DOES SOMEONE FORGET TO SEND SUCH AN IMPORTANT PAGE?-"

She just stands there quietly listening to me but when I say, "I'LL SUE YOUR COMPANY FOR DOING THIS TO ME,"

She yells back at me. "HOW ABOUT YOU ACTUALLY READ SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE!" but she regains her composure as fast as she lost it. "I'm sorry for the outburst, err…"

"Oh, right. Yeah. Um, I shouldn't have yelled, but.."

"Right. Well I understand your – displeasure, but I can't reassign you on such short notice."

"So that means- raptors?" I asked her nervously. _Please say no, please say no, please say-_

"Yes." _Screw my luck._ "You will be working with raptors."

"But, don't worry," she continued. "The eggs haven't even hatched yet. And they'll be imprinted on you as soon as they hatch."

I take in a deep breath. "Okay. So, they won't eat me?"

"Let's hope not." She says casually. _Let's hope not?_ What the hell?

But I don't freak out.

She turns and starts walking towards the elevator. I follow her in. She pushes the button to the basement, and we descend down. The entire ride down, I could think of only one thing. _These guys really needed to change their elevator music._

Finally, after what felt like an hour, and after the torture of what we call Opera music, we walk over to Claire's car.

"Nice car," I comment. She smiles, opening the door.

She owned a beautiful gray Mercedes Benz GLE Coupe. And if I was stunned by its beauty on the outside, it was paralyzed to see the inside. It was marvelous. Black leather seats, Aluminum trim; it was the epitome of classy and modern.

"Thank you. Now get in." I slid over in the passenger seat. She starts the car, and we head out of the basement parking. As soon as we are out, my body slightly relaxes. I didn't even know I was tensed up till that moment.

"So Claire," I strike up some conversation. "When did you start working here?"

"Around 3 years ago, I guess. I wasn't really that experienced so the panel initially refused, but Mr. Masrani agreed to take me in. I had a mentor for the first year, but now, I'm on my own."

"So that kinda makes you the big boss?"

She laughed. "No no, not exactly. I'm the one who checks all the assets in the control room, monitors the activity, tell the people what to do-"

"That's exactly what a boss does." I interrupt her.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "Well, fine, I might be the big boss-"

"You accept it. You are the boss here. So anyway, why are you driving me to the quarters? Shouldn't you know, tell your assistant or something?" In my experience, no senior officer even makes coffee for an employee, let alone drive one all the way back to their new house.

"Oh, that, well I don't really have an assistant, plus I gotta pick up something from my house, so, I figured out I'll drive you there."

"Well, thanks."

"Anytime," she says and stops the car. "Ah, we're here."

The structure in front of me was not a bungalow. _It was a palace._

It was massive, probably 3 or 4 stories tall, on the right side, there was a big garage which would definitely house three of my Camaros, and there was that garden I've always dreamed with a fountain and the flowers- you get the point. Maybe I was exaggerating, but compared to the tents that we lived in back at the dig, even a one bedroomed flat would be heaven.

"Wow." Are the only words I manage to get out.

"Wow indeed. And guess what? You own this place now," Claire added with a smirk, as she dropped the keys in my hand. "Go on, open the door." She nudged me ahead.

I slipped the key into the keyhole, but just as I was to turn it, a man pulled it inside, and I lost my balance and fell. Right on top of him.

 _He has beautiful eyes,_ inner me thought _._

Shut up inner me! What is wrong with you?

 _You want to touch those muscles._

No I don't!

 _I'm sorry, I meant that you wanted to grab his hair and kiss him senseless._

What? Where did that come from? NO I DON'T!

 _Denial will get you nowhere, Amber._

I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU INNER AMBER NOW SHUT UP!

"Sweetheart, I really appreciate your love for me, but can you please get off me?" his voice brings me back to the present.

I immediately scrambled back up and tried to use one of my mom's glares. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE? AND I AM NO ONE'S SWEETHEART!" I yell at him.

He folds his hands and then raises an eyebrow. "YOUR house?"

"Yes, MINE!" I knew I had epically failed at the glare.

"Look, sweetheart, firstly this is private property. You're trespassing. I can have you sued. Secondly, You were breaking and entering my house-"

"I wasn't breaking and entering, I had a key."

"Whatever, I'm sorry but you need-"

Claire pushes the door and enters inside.

"Amber what's taking you so long," then she looks beside me. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

He rolls his eyes at her. "I'm Owen? Owen Grady? Remember you told me I was supposed to live here?"

Claire looks at him, dumbfounded.

"A few days ago?" he tries again.

"OH right! Right, sorry sorry." She apologizes and then looks at me. "Amber you and Owen are working on the raptor assignment- wait what are you doing here again?"

He sighs. "You told me that this bungalow is mine a few days ago, remember?"

Claire thinks for a while, clearly puzzled. She then checks her clipboard, frantically turning over pages. I know she's found something really bad when her eyes widen as she looks at the paper. She gets out her call phone and dials a number.

"Get Lowery on line." There was some incomprehensible murmuring from the other side.

"LOWERY! I CAN HEAR YOU, YOU KNOW!"

"WHAT IS THIS?" she screams into her phone. I kinda feel sorry for the Lowery guy. You do not want to mess around with Claire. At all.

"No this is completely unacceptable!" She yells out again. There is some mumbling on the other side.

"I figure, that might work, but if not, then?"

"Fine Whatever." Claire forcefully pushes the end button and then looks back at us.

"Due to a _certain_ misunderstanding," she starts. _Shit._ I know I was screwed when she said _certain._

"You have been allotted the same house. But-" She finishes.

"WHAT! NO!" both Owen and I say at the same time.

"Unacceptable, no way!" I wave my hands around.

"Yep. I don't want to bunk with potential murderers." He adds.

 _"_ I'm not a potential murderer! And what makes you think I'm going to bunk with you?"

"Well," he begins. _I desperately wanted to smack clean that evil smirk on his face. I was fuming now._ "Better girls have tried and failed, you know."

"Yeah? Well then they probably didn't know the difference between a garbage can and a man ."

"Really sweetheart? That the best you got?" he challenges me. _Oh just you wait you little goddamn pretty-_ Wait. Where did Pretty Come from Inner Amber? _What's wrong with me?_

"No? I guess you want to be insulted more. Sure. You are an egoistic piece of-"

Claire snaps at us. "SHUT YOUR BICKERING RIGHT NOW!"

There is silence. Claire rolls her eyes. "God, you two are so annoying. You're a team, better act like one. Consider this as a bonding experience, or whatever. Get to know each other."

"Sure thing Claire. Leave the helpless girl alone with the egotistical jerk." I shoot daggers at Owen. He does the one eyebrow raise. Then he walks over to Claire, with a much serious face.

"Wait. This was not in my contract. I was promised a great house, a great bike, and a great pay. Not whiny teenagers who look like they want to kill you as your roommate." He stands in front of her, crossing his arms. She takes a step back.

"I AM NOT A WHINY-" I began, before I was rudely interrupted by the ray of sunshine called Claire.

"Whatever. I don't care. What you," she points her finger at me. "And you," she points it at Owen. "Need to do is get along."

There is a deafening silence.

"Meet me at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Headquarters."

She grabs her coat and walks out. When did she even remove it? Then she turns around as if she forgot something.

"Don't. Be. Late." She reminds us and walks to her car.

"Thanks Claire, for your outstanding amount of faith in us." I mutter.

"So," I turn to Owen. "Which areas have you already contaminated?"

"WHAT?" he looks at me, with a puzzled expression.

 _That looks so sweet._

I do not have time for this Inner me.

 _Tell him you like him._

Where would you even get that idea?

 _From you of course._

"You know, the areas you've already used." I elaborate, ignoring inner Amber's irritating statement.

"Oh." He says, his expression returning to normal. "The entire house actually," then he grabs my hand. "Including you."

Okay. So I kind of deserved that one. I didn't know what to say. I pull back my hand immediately.

"Whatever, I'm gonna grab my bags, and go to my room." I try to avoid awkwardness.

"Where are they, exactly?" he asked me. Right. I didn't have them yet.

"Um.."

"That's what I thought." he added with a grin.

"Whatever, I'm just gonna go to my room. Goodbye _."_

He laughs that beautiful laugh. Screw you inner Amber for making me feel like this.

 _You don't really mean that._

Yes I do.

"Pleasant meeting you too, sweetheart." He adds.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm nobody's sweetheart?" I yell down the stairs.

"Remember, the bedroom on the end of the right corridor is mine!" he shouts.

So I make sure to stay clear of the right corridor. I'm not going anywhere near that room.

The first room I walk in is painted in a lovely light green color, with brown hardwood tiles. There was a nice beige rug in front of the queen-sized bed. The ceiling, however was a forest dark green. When I closed my eyes, I could almost smell the pine, hear the gurgling rivers and feeI the coolness all around me. The bed however, was not green, and was instead a deep dark purple. I walk over and touch one of the sheets. And I plop myself unceremoniously on the soft mattress. I felt like I had experienced heaven. It was _that soft_.

It is only after a couple of hours that I get up from the bed and go check out the other rooms.

The next one I visited was the room opposite to mine. Despite all their crappy services so far, Jurassic World really spared no expense on their interior decorators. Good one Masrani.

This room was equally impressive as the one I had decided to call mine, if not slightly better. The room had turquoise walls with orange curtains that brightened up the entire place. Also, there was a large white circular bed with sea blue accents. The floor was covered up with a sandy yellow carpet, and everywhere I looked there were seashells of some kind.

When I walked into my room, I felt like I walked into a forest, but in here, it was like experiencing the ocean. I wonder what it was like in Owen's room.

 _In what context, Amber?_

Shut up inner me.

I ignore the thought and return back to my room. A nap would be nice a guess. I lay down on the velvety bed and close my eyes.


	5. The Motorcycle

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"GOOD MORNING GRANT" yelled a voice early in the morning. "5 minutes more dad." I mumble, pulling the covers tightly on my head.

"Sorry Grant, but I am not your dad. BUT YOU WILL NOT GET 5 MORE MINUTES. IT IS ALREADY 7 AND CLAIRE TOLD US TO VISIT HER AT 8."

I just simply put the pillow on my ears, and turn on the other side.

All of a sudden, somebody pulled of my covers and I was there in my bed. Clad only in my underwear.

Both of us freeze like Captain America in ice.

Then I scream.

"YOU IDIOT! HOW DARE YOU! COME BACK YOU LITTLE *# ! %&." I screamed and quickly stood up taking the covers from his hands. The man in question was none other than my idiot of a house-mate Owen Grady. Turns out my little nap became a full 9 hour sleep. That's why naps are weird. You never know when you'll wake up. You could sleep for 10 minutes, 10 hours or even an eternity.

"What are you doing in my room?" I yell at him, covering my body with the sheets. He turns around and covers his eyes. At least he has some decency.

"What does it look like, genius?"

"I would say, some either some sort of murdering or stalking-"

"My God, you never stop do you?" he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I was just here to wake you up!"

"NEXT TIME TRY KNOCKING."

"I did! It wasn't my fault that you are like a rock when you sleep!" he argued.

"Whatever! I don't care. Now GET OUT OF HERE!" I shout at him. This was certainly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, okay, okay," he says and goes out of the room. Thank God.

I decided to take a shower after brushing my teeth, but then I realized that I forgot my shirt. My shirt was on my bag, just in my room. I carefully stepped out and just as I reached for the shirt-

"Ahhhh!" both of us scream at the same time. But that didn't make me feel any less embarrassed and I quickly reach for my towel to cover myself. "What the hell are you doing here now?" I manage to say, somehow.

"I was just here to take my-" his eyes drop down to my towel. "Oh."

"What is with you and my- Excuse me, _my eyes are up here_." I cross my hands, as Owen's eyes trail to my err- _chest._ Stupid pervert. Although what I did was a bad idea, because my towel was on the verge of slipping. "Turn around, please!" I tighten the towel and grab the shirt.

"You are not allowed in my room unless it's a national emergency, got it?" I scold him. Seriously, has this boy learnt no modern etiquette at all?

"But it is a national emergency! I forgot my phone in your room!" he says. He appears to be equally flustered as I am.

"Get out. Right now." I walk over to him and try and punch him while holding onto my towel at the same time. Sadly, I cannot get the hit I wanted.

"Oww. I am screaming in agony." He sarcastically says. Yeah, I obviously was going to have to work out a bit more. I go over to my bed and grab his phone.

"Here you go" I say as I toss it out. He runs out and catches it.

"Hey sweetheart, take it easy on the phone, kay? The house may be free but the phone isn't." I catch him staring at my _assets,_ for lack of a decent word, again.

I snap my fingers. "Hello-o," I point 2 of my fingers from my eyes to his. Then, I glare at him the way my mother does when my dad does something stupid. Yep. The glare is equivalent to medusa's stare. But, he didn't turn to stone, so I guess have to work on that too.

"I'm going! Jeez. I won't come back to your room ever again." He says after taking one look at me and then he runs out.

After putting on my shirt and my favorite pair of jeans, I walk down to meet up with Owen. As I descend down, the stairs, I am gifted the sight of my precious bags.

"Finally!" I run down the stairs even faster. Owen is already down surrounded by a number of boxes. He immediately smiles on seeing me.

"Hey, your stuff just came- Oof." He says, nearly tripping over one of the boxes on his way over.

"Be Careful!" I dash over to my precious box and grab it.

"Oww. Here I am in excruciating pain whereas you are worried about a stupid cardboard box?" He looks at me in a fake hurt expression. I roll my eyes, but I lend him a hand. He grabs it and I pull him up.

"Books before boys. That's my life's motto." I smirk at him.

"I am wounded." He clutches his heart and fake moans.

"Best get used to it, buddy." I chuckle and playfully tap his head.

He checks his watch. "Holy shit. We're late."

We literally run over to the garage, where I see Owen's beautiful Triumph Scrambler 900 standing in all its glory.

"I'm in love." I say.

"You're what?" he asks me, very confused. "I mean, my record was like 3 days, but if what you said is true-"

"I meant your bike, stupid." I roll my eyes.

 _Do you really though?_

Inner me if you don't shut up I will have to get rid of you.

"Well, she's new. Courtesy of Simon Masrani," He says proudly admiring the bike.

"Say what you want," I run my hand over the handles, feeling the smooth metal. "You've got good taste in wheels."

"That I do." Owen says, smiling.

That's when I realized something.

"Um Owen?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't really have a car. Or a bike for that matter."

"Oh. Right." He says. Looks like I had to make him understand the situation.

"That translates to, 'I'm going to need a car'." I explain for him.

"I'm not stupid sweetheart. Hop on." He gestured to his bike. I happily skip over.

"Can I drive?" I asked him, using my best puppy eyes expression. I wasn't as good as Sam Winchester, but I could pull it off sometimes.

His expression falls. Haha. _Resistance is futile. Surrender, and you will have your heart left in a single piece._ Mission accomplished!

"No. Never in a million years." He shrugs his head. Mission failed. Okay. Plan B, play by the ego.

"Okay, macho man. I bet I could drive better than you ever can."

He rolls his eyes. "Now's not the time. We barely have 15 minutes to go. And like I said, you even touch the keys you're going down."

"Yes sir." I mock salute him.

"I _was_ in the Navy _._ They shipped me out here to do god knows what. Oh and put on that helmet please, safety first. _"_

I groan and grab the helmet of the table. "Don't you need one?"

"You're wearing mine Amber." His voice softens.

"Oh right. Aren't you- Whoahh!" I clutch the sides of the bike as he revs the engine and takes off.

"Hey sweetheart," he says to me once we are out of the main parking lot.

"What?"

"You might want to hold me right now and secure yourself." WHAT THE F*** is going on here?

"EXCUSE ME?" I shout out. Yeah, I was almost blown by the sheer force of that thing.

"What just happened there? That was nothing. What's going to come is going to be worse than that. Whatever. Your loss," He looks behind and tells me. Then, he accelerates so hard I think my knuckles turned white because of the way I was gripping the sides.

 _You should have taken up his offer, Amber._

Oh, shut up inner me. Now is no time to be a romantic sap.

 _But you already are one!_

I am not!

 _Go on, just wrap your arms around his waist._

Not happening in a million years.

 _Then suffer in pain._

Yep. I can do that.

Even in high speed, I could see the picturesque scenery of Isla Sorna. It certainly was a tropical paradise. As we leave the road that that connected the living quarters to the rest of the island, I raise my arms and shout.

"YOU OKAY THERE AMBER?" Owen asks me loudly, as the wind howled past us.

"YEAH. THIS PLACE IS A PARADISE FOR SOMEONE WHO'S LIVED THEIR ENTIRE LIFE IN THE DESERT." I shout back.

He chuckles and continues driving. As we near the main building, I squeal in excitement which makes Owen almost skid the bike!

"Control your fangirling woman!" he shouts over to me.

"Yeah, shut up. You'd be excited too if you had an opportunity to see a Mosasaurus." I snap at him.

"Oh, right. The whale which is actually a reptile. Yep."

"Huh, who would've thought? You're not as stupid as I thought you'd be," I say.

"Well, sweetheart, I'm full of surprises, you know."

"Shut up you narcissistic- AHH!"

The bike skids on a speed breaker, and I get thrown off the seat, with my poor head ramming into a pole. Ouch. I try to steady myself into a sitting position, but I fall down almost immediately. I see a group randomly colored flesh-blobs running to me. Slowly enough, the blobs start becoming more defined, and the two nearest to me haul me up and set me on a chair.

Someone gets an ice pack, and I hold it up on my head. "Thank you," I mumble. After receiving a lot of weird looks from the people, the crowd around me finally does start to clear.

"Sweetheart." Not again Owen, not again. What will it cost you to shut up? "Shouldn't you, I dunno, maybe take off the helmet before icing your head?" he continues.

 _Owen Grady, I officially hate you._ I fiddle around with the clasp, and when Owen tries to help me, I swat his hands away.

"I do not need your help," I angrily say at him. After a minute or two, I manage to get the damn thing of me. Then, I put the ice on my head.

"See? Unlike you, I am perfectly capable of doing things myself." I wish I could've taken that comment back as soon as I said it. Owen looked pretty bad, and I think he broke his arm. His hair was disheveled, and his cheek had blood running over it.

"Are you okay, Owen?" I ask him, tenderly.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be? We should hurry up, Claire will most likely kill us for being so late-"

"Are you even listening to yourself right now! Your arm is broken. You have blood on your face. This is serious. Why didn't anyone call an ambulance?"

"There is no need to do that, I-"

I ignore him and call emergency services.

"Hello, Jurassic World Emergency Services, please state your-"

"Yeah. Uh, my partner over here has a heavily swollen arm, and a serious cut."

"Can you state your location?"

"Right, um let's see, I guess we are near the Mosasaurus exhibit."

"We'll send help right away."

"Thank you very much." I end the call, and sigh in relief. I then pay attention to Owen, and hand him a bottle of water.

"Drink up," I command. He obeys. After he's done, he wipes his mouth and then drops his.

"This is not what I expected here." He says in a defeated voice.

"I didn't expect this either, looks like this place is going to be the end of me."

"Yep."

It wasn't long before the ambulance and a very angry boss arrives. The paramedics rush out of the van and set Owen on a chair. Then a man asks him questions while a young nurse wraps his arms. Being the male species of human that he is, he starts flirting with her, and the poor girl turns red. The doctor, however is not so impressed by Owen and when he cleans the cut on his head, I think he applied more pressure than necessary which made Owen wince.

"I knew that giving the bike to you was a wrong move, stupid me, how could I be so stupid, my gosh you could've died how did this happen-" Claire paces back and forth, mumbling something and waving her hands around.

"Um, technically, it wasn't his fault or mine, it was the road's fault," I add. I was doing this only for the bike.

"Yeah, totally that dumb speedbump, like who the hell even put it there?" um, Owen, that's taking it a bit too far. Evidently, Claire also believes this.

"That's stupid. You're stupid, I should've known-" and she goes back to her incoherent freaking out. The job must really get to poor Claire.

After the paramedics are done with Owen, they turn to me.

"What? No, I'm good, I don't need anything," I try to talk them out of it, but the doctor forcibly pushes me down on the chair and shines a torch in my eye.

"Thankfully, no concussion," He says as he writes something on that clipboard of his, and the nurse begins to clean the minor scrapes I get.

I don't take much time after that. The ambulance goes away as fast as it came, and the only people left now were me, Owen and Claire.

"You guys had a _fantastic_ first day." Thank you Claire, for that unnecessary sarcasm.

"Yeah, no kidding," Owen scratches the back of his head with his good arm. His left arm was in a sling so that was going to make the motorcycle driving impossible.

"Anyways, we're going to skip the tour and go straight to headquarters to fix your IDs, and then to the hatchery."

"Wait what? The hatchery?" my eyes widen. If what I thought was going to happen, I had to be prepared.

"That can mean only one thing," Owen said. Both of us look at each other, the same expression of uncertainty on our face.

"THE EGGS ARE HATCHING!" both of us shout.


	6. The Geneticist

Claire looks at us like we just developed a third ear. Well I was starting to freak out. I wasn't prepared for this to happen.

 _Okay Amber, breathe._

Inner Amber gives sound advice for the first time in my life.

"Whatever gives you that idea? And Amber, I thought your head was okay?" she starts checking me head for injuries.

I push her away. "No Claire, I'm not that gone. Why else would you want us to go to the hatchery?"

"I thought you might want to see the eggs."

"Oh," Owen deflates a bit. I guess he really wanted to see the raptors. Let's see what he thinks when they develop razor sharp claws.

"Anyways, Mr. Grady, I've called Tow services to pack up your bike. It will be taken to the garage, and they should fix it soon enough."

"Yeah," he looks in the direction of the ruined bike. "You know what? Tell them to put her back in the villa. I'll fix her myself."

I raise my eyebrow at him. "You can fix a bike? Do you even know how it works?"

He rolls his eyes at me. "You don't have to contradict my intelligence every time I say something, _Ms. Grant."_ Oooh, someone was feisty. "Growing up in a garage tends to leave you with some knowledge about wheels."

"And the engine?" I ask.

He sighs. "You're impossible you know that?"

"Of course, sweetheart." I wink at him.

Claire looks at us blankly. "Wow, you guys. So, I'll just tell them to place it outside headquarters. Anyways, I brought my car. Get in."

Headquarters was only 15 minutes away from where the Mosasaur exhibit. I was so going to check out that place.

After we reached, Claire handed the keys to her car to some valet boy, and then walked inside, flinging her jacket over her shoulder.

"Guys come on." She turns around and scolds us. "We don't have all day."

"Yes ma'am." Me and Owen nod, and follow her inside. Claire walks over to the receptionist.

"Hello Ms. Dearing," he greets Claire. Then he looks at us, with a who-are-you-and-what-are-you-doing-here expression. I glare at him and he thankfully backs down. My appearance was probably not very welcoming. He turns his attention towards Claire. "How can I help you?"

"Project I.B.R.I.S, these are the trainers," she, for some reason, whispers. His approach towards us suddenly changes, he looks very interested in what she had said.

"Right of course ma'am. You know where to go. Is their data entered into the system?"

"No of course not."

"Okay" he hands out visitor's badges.

We take the badges and while I pin it to the pocket of my jeans, Owen shoves his in a pocket of his multi-pocketed vest.

As we follow Claire through the never-ending hallway, I ask him a question.

"How do you even find anything in that big jacket of yours?"

He laughs. "Well, wouldn't you want to know?"

I roll my eyes. I crossed my fingers and hoped we were there already. Turns out I was right, for a change.

"So, guys, get in!" Claire almost pushes us inside the room. It wasn't a very big room, probably the size of one of the old tents back at the dig. Inside, there is one single person sitting on the desk.

"Hello," she says in a familiar British Accent. "Get in front of the camera and let me take a picture."

Uh, okay. This lady was slightly intimidating. Claire, however was not really that surprised. Not wanting to be first, I push Owen in front of the white background, and he barely has time to adjust himself into a decent position before we hear the _Click_ sound of the camera.

"This is Tracy," Claire whispered to me. "She is a bit-"

"Bold," I complete for her.

"Yeah, she doesn't mess around with formalities."

I could see Owen wincing as Tracy painfully plucked a hair from his head for a DNA scan. I start preparing myself for the torture.

Owen was done in 5 minutes, and he had a shiny new plastic ID card, which he kept in a different pocket. I wonder what he uses all of them for.

I step in front of the camera to get my photo, and remembering what happened with my poor partner, I quickly fix my hair and smile. Just in time too. I give Tracy my documents, and after she enters everything in the computer, we move on to health testing. Damn, I needed to lose some weight. When it was time for the DNA testing, I pluck out my own hair and hand it to Tracy. She looks shocked, but she takes the strand and goes over to the sequencing machine. I can hear Owen snickering softly. After some more time, it was finally done. Tracy gives, more like throws the ID card over to me.

"Now you folks remember, this is only for this place, and you cannot use it anywhere else. AND NO it cannot be used as a credit card."

Both me and Owen look at her weirdly. How old does she think we are?

"How old do you think we are, ma'am?" Owen does ask her. Brave guy.

"Thank you very much, Tracy," Claire interrupts and then grabs Owen's arm. "We're late." Then she grabs my hand and drags us out of the room. "Oh and you can discard the visitor's badges now."

"Why did you even give them to us?"

"Standard protocol. All new employees which do not have an ID must wear a visitor's badge."

Hmm. "Can I get a new ID?" I ask Claire.

"Why? What for? You just got one."

"No, the photo is pretty bad. I look like a dazed ankylosaurus."

Owen looks at my ID and sniggers. "That's right, you sorta do look like one."

"Yours isn't any better." I say as I lean in to see his own photo. "You're a baboon on drugs."

"Yeah I blame Tracy. She's weird," Owen adds, looking at the photo on his ID clearly disgusted. I nod in agreement. Claire rolls her eyes.

"Seriously, come on guys, we're getting really really late."

"Okay!" I raise my hands in surrender. "We're just following you."

Claire nods, and then starts walking at a pace I wouldn't have thought was possible in those thin high heels. I have trouble catching up.

By the time we reach, I am exhausted. Never underestimate a working woman in heels. Owen is a bit tired too. Claire flashes her ID on a scanner, and the door to the lab opens. We follow Claire inside. There were plenty of scientists in white lab coats moving equipment, noting things on a clipboard, and working with eggs.

Claire leads to us an isolated table; with the only attendant is someone I know. Lilith. My eyes widen in surprise, and her mouth drops to the ground on seeing me. Both of us were not, really on good terms. Owen is the only one who seems to notice that, but he chooses not to say anything.

Claire, who doesn't seem to recognize her, asks her right away. "Are you new?"

Lilith laughs. "No, no, I was on vacation, but I couldn't get back because of some- stuff I had to deal with." Then she takes in our disheveled appearances and Owen's arm. "Wow, you guys have been through a lot today, haven't you?"

"Don't ask." Owen adjusted his sling.

"So, we are working on 4 different velociraptors. So far, we only have the one egg ready."

Okay. So one raptor. That isn't so hard!

"We molded them using DNA from different lizards. Each one will be different from each other. The best combination will be replicated."

"One question," I start. "What happened to the Original raptor pack? The one that the Original park had created?"

She looks a bit surprised. "Well, I guess most of them were destroyed, but the DNA we've used, it comes partially from the original pack Dr. Wu created."

Shit.

"Okay," I breathe. The raptors I was going to work with might have the genes of the ones that nearly killed me. This was going to be so much fun.

"Are you okay, Amber?" Lillith said snarkily. I know that she is not concerned about me in any way, but I know to pick my fights. This could wait until later.

"Never been better, thank you. So what's next?" I ask her, maintaining a neutral expression on my face.

"Okay, so now that we have your DNA, it shouldn't be hard for us to make the raptors imprint on you. All you have to do is be there when they hatch. The other 3 eggs will arrive sometime between the next week. They are almost ready." she explains.

"Okay," Owen nodded. "So when will they hatch?"

"After 3 weeks."

"Great," I conclude. Claire smiles at Lillith and thanks her for her time. The little bitch acts all high and mighty like 'How it was a great pleasure to work here' and 'how she was so happy to be there.' I wish I could smack the hypocrite. Owen smiles at her, and follows Claire outside. However, I have some scores to settle. As Lilith starts putting away stuff, I ask her.

"What is your problem with me?" I slam my hand on the table.

She looks a little startled, but then answers in a calm tone. "Nothing."

"Then why? What did I do?" I was pretty confused by now.

"He hasn't told you, has he?" she looked at me, tears in those silver eyes.

"No. All I know, is that you guys broke up and Charlie came by to drop me all lovey-dovey and mopey."

"You know what? Just go away." She looks away from me, and injects something into the raptor egg.

"Okay, I get it you two have your issues, but what does this have to do with me?"

"You don't know half of it. I don't expect you to. " She says harshly, and leaves the table. I would've followed her, but I realize that I've lost Claire. Great. Just my luck.

As I run out of the lab, I get the feeling all the scientists were staring at me. Maybe, I caused a bit of a scene, but- _Crash!_ I slam into another person, and both of us fall to the ground.

"Get off me sweetheart, you've got to stop expressing your emotions this way. You like me, I get it, but we can simply talk, ok?" Great. The person had to be Owen. Ugh.

"Owen, you know I'd never date you in a million years. Go away." I get back on my feet, and brush the dirt off my shirt. "Where's Claire?" I ask him, as he pulls himself up.

"Yeah, she had something she needed to take care of. She left."

"Oh." There is silence as we walk down the corridor.

"So where do we go now?" I ask him.

"I don't know, let's just head back to the house."

"Yeah, I've got some unpacking to do." I agree with him. Today has been a- stressful day.

"How are we going to get home though?" I ask him.

"Well, my bike isn't that busted up, so I could ride it, but it'll be risky with one hand. But nah, bad idea. With your extra weight, it'll be impossible."

"I hate you so much Owen Christopher Grady." I look sternly at him.

"Wait a minute, how do you know my middle name?"

"I read your ID. Anyways, how are we supposed to get back?"

"We could call Claire?" he suggests. Right. I dial her number on my phone. It goes straight to voicemail.

"Try again," Owen tells me. I dial the number again. She doesn't pick up.

"Give it to me," he snatches the phone from my hands, and starts typing in her number. He puts it to his ears.

"Any response?" I ask him.

"Nope." He hands the phone back to me.

"Let's try your phone then." I point to his phone.

"Yeah, sorry. My phone's dead," He apologetically says. And then everything turns dark.

"DON'T WORRY PEOPLE! WE'LL FIX IT!" I hear a voice shout out. Great. Now we had no electricity.

"DON'T WORRY PEOPLE! THERE'S A BACKUP GENERATOR." Another voice, which I recognize to be the receptionist's, shouts back.

"I, UH, ACCIDENTALLY BLEW IT UP. ALSO, COMMUNICATIONS IN THIS BUILDING ARE DOWN. SORRY."

"PLEASE TELL ME YOU DID NOT SHUT DOWN THE POWER TO THE ENTIRE PARK!"

"UH, I DIDN'T!"

Awesome. Slowly, my eyes adjust to the darkness, and I find my phone and turn on the flashlight.

"Much better," I say to myself.

In the dim flashlight, I confront Owen. "Now what do we do?"

"Grab the bus."

I sigh. "The bus it is then. I don't have any money though."

"Let's just hope this one is free."


	7. The Horn

After 10 wrong turns, and a run in with some very angry people, we finally manage to get outside. The hot temperature outside made me want to go back to the air-conditioned building, but what would I do sitting there?

"Hey, do you know where the bus station is?" I ask Owen.

"Nope. I came in 2 days before you did, remember?"

"Yeah." Both of us think for a while.

"Let's just go ask some tourists."

"How would the tourists know? They're well, _tourists._ "

"But they might have a map or something. Do you have a better idea?"

"Let's go ask an employee." I cross my arms over my chest. _We_ were supposed to be the people working here.

"What? That's no fun. Look at that, " he said as he pointed his finger at a very pretty woman in a red sundress. "Now look at that." He pointed to a middle-aged man with a paunch in the Jurassic World uniform.

"You're seriously going to ask someone on the basis of their attractiveness?"

"Yep," he winks at me. I roll my eyes. "Watch and learn sweetheart," he says and approaches the woman in the red dress.

I head over to the guy.

"Excuse me sir, do you know where the bus station is?"

"Oh yes. You go straight from here, take a right, walk another block, and there should be one behind the Mosasaurus exhibit." Turns out the old guy was friendly.

"Will there be a bus to take us directly to the Employee residential section?"

"Ah, no," he observes me for a minute. "You're new here right?"

"Yep. My first day, actually."

He looks surprised, taking in my appearance. "Huh. Well not a very good start, then."

"Nope." I stick a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

"Well, anyways. You can take the bus to the Triceratops Territory, and then you'll have to walk. I'm assuming you live near the lake?"

"Yes."

"Great. It shouldn't be hard to find." Then he takes a piece of paper from his bag and writes something on it."

"So this is a standard tourist's map, but as you can see, that's the lake," he says as he points towards the north section of the island. "That's where you want to go."

"Thank you so much, sir." I fold the map and put it in my pocket.

"Anytime kid. Good luck."

"I'm going to need it." I smile at him, and then make my way towards my highly idiotic partner.

He was still chatting up the woman. Typical. I tap his shoulders, trying to get his attention. That doesn't work. So I grab his vest, and pull him as hard as I could. That actually does work.

"What are you doing?" a highly annoyed Owen asks me.

"I got the information. Let's go now."

"Wait, but I am so close to getting her number-"

"I don't care. You are here to work, god dammit."

"Fine." He leaves me and walks over to the lady. Looking at her smile, and Owen's attempts to make a move on her, I give up. He's never going to be serious. I ignore the two of them and walk in the direction of the bus stop.

Owen catches up not that much later.

"Hey Amber, guess what?"

I sigh. "You got her number," I say blandly.

"Yes I did!" he sounds more excited than Sarah when she heard that I was going to Jurassic World. Speaking of whom, I have to call my family. "How did you know?" he asks me, curious.

"You don't have to be genius to figure that out," I roll my eyes, and stand under the shade of the bus stand. Boy, the heat was really getting to me now.

The bus to Triceratops territory arrives almost 7 minutes later. Somehow I had managed to shut Owen up, so I could think in peace. The last few days have been a bit overwhelming. _The actual job, Owen, Lilith, Claire, Simon Masrani, and the eggs._ I think i doze off at some point, because Owen shakes me awake, and we get down the bus.

The man sure wasn't lying when he said we had to walk. After trekking through what seems to be like 3 miles, we finally see our house. I'm pretty sure we would be lost, if it wasn't for the map. After I go back I'm going to frame this thing.

I take out the keys to the house from my pocket and unlock the door. Inside we see a complete mess. So many cardboard boxes strewn everywhere, it was hard for us to even climb the stairs.

"Wow, I guess they brought my stuff too!" Owen says, as he enters the house.

"Yeah, so many boxes. We're going to need at least 2 days to put everything in its place," I tell him. He grabs a box and sits on the floor.

"Yep." He opens the box with a knife he took out from his jacket.

"Oh look, my entire movie collection is here!" he happily says.

I run into the kitchen to get a pair of scissors. Then I start opening my own boxes.

"Yes! My entire Harry Potter collection came in!" Finally!

"Geek," Owen mouths to me.

"Shut up. I'm not the one who has an entire box full of comic books. Like seriously man, the 'Infinity Gauntlet'? 'Spider-verse'? You're a bigger geek than I am."

He snatches the box out of my hands. "Where did you even find that? Why did you find that?"

I hand the box over to him and then walk over to the phone. "Hey Owen, I'm going to order some food. Wow, they even have a menu and everything here. Anyways, you want anything?"

"Oh, man, I didn't even know I had these!" Ok. Owen was pretty distracted. Never mind, I'll just order 2 pizzas. After I finish ordering a Pepperoni pizza with stuffed crust and mushrooms, I get back to opening more boxes.

A smile finds its way on my face when I open the next box. Dad had sent my souvenirs from our previous digs. Owen has a peek. He gently picks up a pointy ivory horn from the box, and studies it.

"What's this?" he asks me.

I smile at Owen. "Yeah, that's a triceratops horn."

He looks amazed by it. "Wow. Where did you get it?"

"I dug it."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"How did you find it?"

"That's a funny story actually.."

*flashback*

 _1993-_

 _Alan Grant was working on a dig Montana. He was completely frazzled; it had been two weeks, after all. 2 months without a single trace of any fossil._

 _"Alan, there's nothing at the East side .We checked." A young woman in khaki shorts tells him. She was nervous. There had to be something, they checked with the geologists. The age of the rocks was right, the type of the rocks was right, so why weren't they finding anything?_

 _"Then double check," Alan angrily said to the woman. This was not his first dig. He knew that it could take time to find the fossils. But 2 months! That was a lot of time._

 _"We did," she patiently explained to him. "but there wasn't a trace of anything. The North side still holds some promise, but the South and West are most likely to be dry."_

 _A little girl, maybe 7 years old runs towards the woman with a toy tyrannosaurus rex in her hand._

 _"Mommy! Daddy! I want to dig." She looked at Alan with determination in her eyes. Alan instantly melted. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for his daughter. His anger instantly vanished when he saw her._

 _"Okay darling. Mommy will give you some tools. Just promise me you won't disturb the other people and you won't stray far off from the site, okay?" he smiled at her._

 _"Okay." She hugged him and ran off._

 _"So," the woman starts. "I'll give her the tools. Don't stress out too much." She gave him a kiss on his forehead._

 _"Yeah, okay Veronica." He smiled at her. She smiled back. She left and entered one of the equipment tents._

 _"Amber!" she called out, and the little girl ran inside the tent._

 _"Mommy!"_

 _"Pick out the one you like." Veronica told her._

 _"Okay."_

 _After some searching, the pair found a brush and a small shovel for Amber to work with._

 _"Now be safe, and don't wander away, you get me?"_

 _"Yes." Amber turned and ran out as fast as she came in. She knew the perfect spot to dig. She went to the middle of the kitchen tent, and started to dig. She dug as fast as possible for a 7 year old kid. She is almost about to take a break when she spots it. A part of the skull._

 _"AMBER! What are you doing?" Alan storms inside the tent, pretty mad at his daughter._

 _Amber smiles at him. "Look Daddy! I found something!"_

 _Alan grabs his daughter and forces her down on a chair. "Look darling, we do not mess up inside a tent, okay? Now you know that this equipment is very expensive, and, damn, you tore the groundsheet?" he sighed. "Great, just great. You are in a lot of trouble, missy."_

 _However, Amber didn't show any sign of guilt. Alan was a little confused, Amber was a nice kid. She always accepted her mistakes, and even helped to fix them. But right now, Amber was smiling happily and was very excited about something. Huh._

 _"What is it, Amber? Do you have something to show me?" Alan asked her._

 _She nodded her head. "Yes!" Then she pulled at his hand and then showed him her work. It was not very professional, but then again, she was just a kid. Alan peered inside, and what he found made his heart stop._

 _Amber had found the fossils. He immediately called Veronica._

 _"Vera, listen up. We found the fossils. Come to the kitchen tent. You'll be surprised."_

 _He then smiled at the girl in front of him and lifted her up. "I am so proud of you darling. How did you know that it was there?"_

 _"I didn't. I just thought, that if you couldn't find it anywhere around the camp, then it had to be in the camp!"_

 _"Smart girl." He set her down. Veronica was very shocked by Amber's discovery._

 _"Well maybe that's what we needed all along. A different perspective. But Alan, this is great and all, but we're going to have to relocate our camp."_

 _Alan's eyes widen in realization. "Oh boy."_

 _The relocating took only 2 days, with the entire crew helping out, and on the third day, they picked up where Amber left. The excavated bones were of a triceratops._

*end of flashback*

"You were 7?" Owen looked shocked.

"Yep. Digging dinosaurs ever since!" I proudly say. Good times, those.

"So how was it like, you know? Your childhood?" he asks me.

"It was- most definitely not normal, but it was nice, I guess, most of it at least."

"That's very vague."

"Well _you_ tell me about your childhood then." I cross my arms and look at him, eyes locked on firmly.

"Okay," he starts. "Most of my kid years I spent working in a garage. Working around, messing with the internals of a car, that was real fun, you know?"

"Sounds nice, was your dad a mechanic?"

"Yeah, sort of. He owned the Auto-shop, but he made me sit and watch his employees fix cars. I learnt a lot of things from him; by the time I was 18 I could create a fully functional engine with some spare parts."

"Wow, that sounds awesome."

"After school, I joined the Navy. I was almost going to be a commander."

"So how'd you end up here?" Owen seemed to have a great life. How on earth did he land himself in this mess?

"Long story short, there was an accident. And a Vice Admiral's daughter." Of course there was.

"So they kicked you out?" I ask him.

"Nope, more like they hitched a plan with InGen to send me on the most dangerous assignment they had. I bet they're still hoping I'll die so I won't join back when I finish with the raptors."

"That's even worse than kicking you out."

"Yeah, I guess there weren't a lot of volunteers. Speaking of which, how did you end up here?"

"Oh, uh-," how do you tell somebody you're broke without sounding poor?

 _That's easy. You tell him, "I was broke and this job pays well, so here I am!"_

Not now, inner Amber. Thankfully the doorbell rings, so I jump up before Owen could even process what was happening and dash at the door. I open it to see the pizza delivery guy. In my hurry to get away from awkward conversations, I forgot the money.

"Hey Owen! Can you please get my bag from the table? I need to pay for the pizza." I shout.

"You ordered pizza! Awesome. I'll pay." He offered. Yay! Free food!

The pizza guy looks at us happily. When Owen comes with his wallet, the boy tells him "You guys are couple goals."

Both of us look at him as if he suddenly grew triceratops horns on his forehead.

"No!" Both of us say at the same time. "We are not in a relationship!" Somehow, we say that together too.

The pizza guy hands Owen the bill and runs out, yelling loud, "YES! I SHIPPED IT FIRST!" We look at him weirdly.

"He's crazy," Owen whispers to me.

"I wonder what's shipping." I comment and shut the door.


	8. The Secretary

The next week goes on pretty uneventfully. Since we aren't actually doing anything till the raptors hatched, we have plenty free time on board. So, till Claire gets an assistant, I am supposed to help her out with her work. That was tough. That woman had an impossible job, damn it. She knows each and every crevice of this island so well, I bet that even if she hit her head and lost her memory she'll still be able to name every attraction at the park. Following her around is tough. I've gotta start looking for potential assistants to help her. How does she even remember this stuff?

Owen, on the other hand got assigned to emergency services. I guess he freeloaded till his arm healed. He must get into some real bad stuff I guess, because I once caught some bad bruises on his arms. Must be pretty exerting too, because when he gets home, he literally collapses on the couch, and don't ask me count the number of times I've had to haul his beautiful, muscular-ahem- _excuse me._ Yeah where was I? Right, I haul up his lazy butt all the way to the top of the stairs, and then he suddenly jerks awake and then locks himself in his room.

So today, I'm standing outside Claire's office, waiting for my next round of orders. I've officially completed 2 weeks in secretory-ship. Yay! I was going to have to celebrate. The last time I called my family was 2 weeks ago. Ok, I'll celebrate and call them tonight.

As I walk up to her doors, I hear some noises inside. And I, being the inquisitive person I am, stick my ear to the door and listen on.

"-Claire, I need you to at least think over it!" a highly agitated male voice says.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Hoskins," Claire began in that calm yet firm voice of hers that I envied. "But I will not, sign this unless this is approved by Simon Masrani. The eggs haven't even hatched yet!"

"All you have to do is bloody sign this paper! He's going to sign it later! " he was screeching. I didn't even need to put my ear to the door by now.

"Get it approved and then we'll talk."

I jerk away from the door as I hear footsteps. The door opens and a white man with an evil glint in his eyes walks past me. I sigh in relief. I had a feeling that this man was going to be very troublesome.

"Hey Amber, come in." Claire calls out to me. I walk in and sit in one of the chairs in front of her desk. I grab an apple from her table and start munching it.

"So," I say with my mouth full. "Whajrwasgreutbacout?"

"What?" she looks at me in disgust. "I was saving that for later."

I swallow. "Yeah, sorry. What was that about? Who was that man?"

Claire inhales. "No one you have to worry about, at least not today. Anyways, I have to check on some of the exhibits today-"

"No more paperwork?" I ask her hopefully, taking another bite out of my [Claire's] apple.

"Of course there is. But less so than usual."

"Fantastic." I grab my bag and stand up. "Anything's better than staying in this stuffy office anyways."

Claire looks offended. "No offence meant Claire." I attempt to save myself.

"MY OFFICE IS NOT STUFFY!"

"Whatever you say. Let's go boss." I gesture for her to move outside.

She huffs out of the room, with me tailing behind her. I barely manage to walk inside the elevator before it closes.

"So where are we going?" I ask her.

"We're going to see the Triceratops Territory and Gallimimus valley."

"Great."

"I'm sorry Claire." I apologize to Claire, not really meaning it. Hopefully, my acting skills were good enough to pass off as a real apology. I did not know she was so protective about her office.

Anyways, after enduring whiny boy band songs (I had to fix Masrani's ears), we exit the elevator and sit in Claire's car. She starts the engine and we start our 30 minute drive from headquarters to the Triceratops Valley.

"Hey Claire," I ask. "Do you have any music?"

"Oh yeah." She opens the glove box in front of me. Wow, she had a lot of CDs. Then she grabs one at random and puts it in the player.

"Seriously Claire? Taylor Swift?"

"House rules, Amber. Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts her cakehole."

I was stunned. This was the first time I'd ever heard Claire use some kind of informal language. And that too a pop-culture reference? Never thought I'd see the day. Apparently Claire could see that emotion written on my face, so she raises her eyebrows.

"What? I have free Netflix, courtesy of Jurassic World. I use my time well."

"Nothing." I nonchalantly say.

After twenty minutes, Claire makes a turn and enters a secluded area. There was not even a trace of a tourist.

"Claire," I was beginning to get worried now. "Are you sure we're in the right place?"

"Of course. I am sure." She said casually and kept on moving.

"Uh, why is there not even a single tourist here then?"

"Oh, right, right. Yeah, the Gyrospheres are still being tested. They don't open to the public till next week.

"Oh, I see. Wait what-? What are we doing at the gyro- whatever they are?"

"Eh, maybe make a few checks and then ride in one of them."

"Great," I say.

Claire reaches to a halt, and then we hop out of the car. She locks it, and then we walk on to the enclosure. I could barely read the letters of the new attraction, these guys knew how to hide stuff.

Initially, the security guy wanted to throw us out immediately, but upon seeing Claire, he decided that that would be a very bad idea. So, doing the smart thing, he lets us in. I could smell the wood polish as soon as I entered. Pretty new place, I guess; but as far as what I could see, it was all operational.

"We're having over some journalists the day after," Clare tells me.

"I see."

"Hey, Clint!" Claire shouts and a young man in his late-teens runs out of the office and stands straight in front of Claire, even saluting her. I hold back a chuckle.

"Sergeant Clinton Barton reporting for duty, sir!" Claire looks mad at him.

"You know, if you want to join the army, Owen can get you in." I tell him. When he looks at me, his jaw drops so low I could hear it hit the floor. Not really, but it sure did look like it.

I snap my fingers in front of his face. "Hey buddy, you there with me?"

"YOU'RE AMBER GRANT! THE ONE WHO SURVIVED THE OLD PARK! OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE MY EYES ITS-"

"Okay, boy, breathe." I tell him.

"YOU'RE AMBER GRANT! THE AMBER GRANT!" he yelled.

The corner of my mouth turned up. It was the first time I was received with such respect.

"Yeah, course I am." I smile at him, my posture becoming straighter.

"So why are you here?" he asks me.

"Oh, I'm here to help out Claire. I've still got a few days before I actually have to start working on the rap-" Claire glares at me. Oh right, that was supposed to be top secret. "Dinosaurs." I correct myself.

Claire clears her throat. "So Clint, I need you start up one of the gyrospheres. I and Amber are going to check the paddock."

"Sure," he says, but I don't really think he understood what Claire told him to do. He had the same expression on his face like the one I had when Jensen Ackles visited our dig. I'm pretty sure did not even close my mouth after he left; I was that star-struck. Sarah still teases me on that.

I smile at Clint and then ask him, "Hey Clint, can you start one of those gyrospheres for us?"

"Oh yes!" then he runs back into the office, flips a few switches and then signals us to go sit in the glass sphere which had just appeared before us. Claire rolls her eyes.

Interesting, I think to myself. Claire gets into the driver's seat, and I get into the seat beside her. As soon as I buckle up, the screen in front us displays a video.

"Hey, there. I'm Jimmy Fallon." I turn to Claire.

"You hired Jimmy Fallon for this gyroball?"

"Gyrosphere, and yes. We spare no expense." Claire says in full John Hammond mode. Spare no expense? Yeah right. That's like saying me and Owen had a kid. Which means never in a million years.

"Welcome aboard the Gyrosphere," Jimmy Fallon continues to say, while Claire navigates us through the vast, boring paddock. Where were the dinosaurs?

"Hey Claire," I say.

"What is it?" she asks me, annoyed.

"Where are the-" I am cut short by the rumbling of the ground. Suddenly, our entire sphere shakes.

"What's happening?" I ask Claire, worried.

She smiles at me. "Well, you wanted to see the dinosaurs, here are the dinosaurs." And then I see the first row of the Gallimimus herd, full on heading towards us.

"Wow," are the only words I could say.

"And that's only one of the species we have planned next."

"You mean there are more? What else can we see right now?"

"I guess we can see the ankylosauruses-"

"OH MY GOD!" Yeah, I know I was screaming like a 7-year old on steroids, but I had never seen this species of dinosaurs ever in my life. Okay fine, I have, but fossils don't count!

Claire smiles, and drives us towards the Ankylosauruses.

"These guys can be a little violent, so we definitely aren't opening them to the public until a few year or so. That's why we're restricting this entire section."

"Oh." I am going to see something no other tourist can until the next 5 years. I feel already like a VIP.

Claire drives in deeper through the woods and what I see makes me skip a beat.

5 majestic creatures, each one as tall as an elephant, covered all around with thick bony armor and spikes. Literally, they were living tanks. I'm pretty sure that the real ankylosauruses were not like what I saw in front of me, but from what I know from fossils, they aren't anything like the ones I was seeing in front of me.

"Impressive huh?" Claire asks me, knowing that look on my face all too well. Of course she does.

"Wow. They are exactly like huge living tanks, aren't they?

Claire's expression hardens. "No."

I wondered if her sour mood had something to do about today morning. However, I value my life, and I decide not to further press the subject.

"Can we get out and see them?" I ask her eagerly.

Clair faces me with a stone-set expression. "No. Even the handlers themselves have to wear special suits to even go near them. We don't stand a chance."

I decide not to let Claire's bad mood dampen my Ankylosaurus experience. I resume admiring them through the glass of the gyrosphere. After sometime, Claire decides that we spent enough time looking at the dinosaurs, and that we had to get back to the station.

I sigh. Claire turns us around and drives us out of the restricted section. It isn't long before we reach the station. Clint welcomes us like we're some superstars who've decided to visit one of their fans randomly but the fan is always prepared and in the end it's the celebrity who's surprised.

In short, Clint had a pair of flower garlands and lemonade in his hands. I love lemonade!. Once we're out of the spheres, I give him my most charming smile.

"Thanks a lot Clint! You're a lifesaver." In my opinion, that statement is a bit of an overkill but it seems to work on him because his face turns as red as the apple I was eating in the morning. I'm not going to deny that, it was fun teasing him like this.

Then Claire caught on and gave me that 'I-know-what-you're-doing-and-if-you-don't-stop-I'm-firing-you' look. I glare at her. She glares back. I decide to withdraw from this battle. Clint leads us into the small office inside the station, where we continue to sip our lemonades peacefully. However I finish mine pretty quickly.

"Did you like it?" Clint asks me nervously. I beam at him.

"Of course I did! It's not every day you see a herd of gallimimus running towards sprinting at top speed." His expression lowers. Oh. He thought I was being sarcastic.

"I'm not being sarcastic." I clarify for him. His expression returns back to the star struck thing it was.

"I hope you'll come back again?" he adds, hopefully, his fingers fidgeting with the seat of his chair. Aww, this kid was too adorable to resist.

"Of course I will." I smile at him.

After Claire thanks Clint for the lemonade, she tells me wait there till she brings over the car. Clint barely says a word except 'goodbye' when Claire arrives. I decide to toy with his emotions a little more. As we leave, I step forward and kiss him on his cheeks. He turns redder than the time dad ate that bhoot jolokia chili on a dare. Clint was in so much shock that he barely even says goodbye to me.

Claire tries very hard to hold back a laugh. I could see that in her eyes. She relaxed considerably in her time at the station. That's good news, right?

"Hey Claire, can I pick the music?" I ask her. I was sick and tired of listening to Taylor Swift drone on and on about her break-ups. The only guy I ever dated was in my year at high school, but we never did anything much really. In fact, I was surprised we were steady for 2 years until we finally stopped being together. I got over him faster than you can say 'Harry Edward Styles.'

"Sure." Claire says, not really into the conversation.

I unlock my phone and connect it to the stereo. Then I play the playlist that Sarah had once created for me as a prank. She transferred all of mom's 80's songs and changed every single ringtone to 'Eye of the Tiger'. But for some reason, I still haven't changed it.

* * *

 **A.n- Catch all the references?**


	9. The Temporary Fix

Claire hummed along to the song the entire journey. I guess she was more into rock than she thought she was. Triceratops Territory was 15 miles away from Gallimimus Valley, so we had enough time to kick back and relax. Something I haven't done ever since I got on the island.

The eggs are supposed to hatch around this week, so I'm really nervous but at the same time I'm kind of excited. I mean, It's not every day you get to see a pack of baby velociraptors. Although if dad finds out, he's going to murder me.

I doze off sometime in between that one ACDC song; I lost track of which one. Claire was happy, so that's an improvement from her foul mood today. I close my eyes and settle in for a nap.

"WAKE UP AMBER GWYNETH GRANT!"

I jolt awake. "Whaa-?"

"You sound like one of those dazed yellow capsules. Get up!" Oh. It was Claire. I normally go right back to sleep, but because I value my job, more importantly my salary, I decide to remain awake and fulfill Claire's every demand.

I stand up and pack my stuff in my bag. "Those are called minions. Where are we?" I ask Claire. I tried to stay awake, but it was hard for me to keep up with her.

"-wrong turn and now we're outside of Gallimimus valley." She finally stops. Thank God.

I look at her with a blank expression on my face. Claire was exasperated. Her hair was disheveled, which was completely un-Claire-ish and her jacket was ripped. I look at myself. I had fared a little better than Claire, thankfully. I had some dirt on my shirt, but otherwise I was okay.

"What happened Claire?" I finally ask her. Claire inhales deeply.

"I think my car has a punctured tyre."

"WHAT? BUT THIS IS A MERCEDES GLE COUPE! THIS CAR IS ONE OF THE BEST! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN-"

"Um, yeah, about that, I may or may not have run off road-" Oh. That explains it.

I muster up the most disappointed look I can. I even place my hands on my hips.

"Hey! I'm not a 10 year old stick-by-the-rules-or-you'll-get-time-out kid! Plus, this was supposed to be the faster route to Triceratops Territory."

"No, Claire this is great, just great. I mean I would expect this kind of behavior from me but from you? This is totally not acceptable." Wow I was beginning to sound like my mother.

Claire looks at me sheepishly. "Sorry?"

"Ugh, fine. What should we do now?"

"I called Emergency Services and they're sending a tow-truck."

"So now we wait." I accept my fate, with great displeasure.

Luckily for us, Tow Services arrives 5 minutes later. Unluckily for us, I see Mr. I'm-too-hot-for-this-world Grady inside that truck.

"Trouble in Paradise sweetheart?" he smiles at me. I groan. But then I realize something. Owen was in a _tow-truck._ For some reason, I pictured Owen in a mechanic's overalls and face covered with grease.

"You're working for tow services? Did the Emergency response guys get tired of your shit?" I try to stifle a laugh, but fail utterly. He looks at me; his face has an expression saying 'Seriously'?

"No. I'm _still_ with Emergency Response. This tow truck's just a- bonus, I guess." he tried to salvage his dignity. Oh man, Owen you're never going to forget this.

"Bonus?" I ask him. Now tears were running down my face.

"I had no interest in rescuing you sweetheart, but I was the only person capable enough of fixing Claire's car, so here I am!" he replies, his voice a little angry this time.

I glare at him. He wasn't the only who could get angry. "One. No one calls me sweetheart." I start. "Two. NO one calls me sweetheart. Three. No-" this sweetheart business was getting out of hand.

"Yeah _sweetheart_ , I get it." He smirks the kind of smirk that made my knees go wobbly.

 _No Amber. You cannot do this. You are a feminist through and through. You do not need a man to complete you._

Well said, inner Amber well said.

"So are you just going to stand there or are you actually going to fix my car?" Claire asks him, her voice laced with skepticism. Atta girl. "Also, you two need to get a room."

"WHAT?" both I and Owen say at the same time.

"Nothing." Claire nonchalantly waves her hand. "Get on with fixing my car."

Owen sighs. "It would feel nice to be appreciated for once, ya know?" Thus saying, he brings out a tool box from the tow truck, and then uses the jack to raise Claire's car. Then while he starts toying around with the wheel, me and Claire pick a spot under a tree and sit down.

After a few minutes, Owen calls us over.

"Yeah, ladies, it's done. Your wheel is changed. Oh, and I also tuned up your engine while at it. Your transmission should go much more easy now, Claire. You won't feel the jerks anymore."

"How did you know I got jerks while driving?" She looks at him questioningly.

He chuckles. "I told you, I know my engines. So I'll be on my way, and you guys have fun wherever it is your going."

"Thanks Owen. See you later."

"Yeah," he runs his hand through his hair. For some reason, my face started to heat up. As he climbs into his tow-truck, I can't help but admire his-

"O-kay, thank you Owen, come on Amber, let's go back to the car." Claire grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me inside the car, breaking me from my thoughts. "I could cut the tension between you with a knife," Claire said as she started the engine.

"I don't know where you got this absurd idea, Claire, but it sure as hell ain't true." I cross my arms over my chest. I know that Claire's smile implied something else.

"Yeah whatever."

Turns out Triceratops territory was only 4 minutes from where our car broke down. I gotta say, this place made up for the lack of visitors in the Gyrosphere section. More than a thousand people were up here, standing in line, eagerly waiting for their chance to see a triceratops. Well, once upon a time, they were my favorite too.

As we pushed past people, [and got plenty of swear words thrown at us] we were finally able to reach the attraction management office.

"Whoa!" I fan myself. "How do you guys survive in this place? Living in a desert I get, this is horrible."

"Yeah, you get used to it after a month or so." Claire tells me, still looking perfect as ever. How does she still keep her composure after that? I guess that's her superpower, looking flawless even during a zombie apocalypse.

Claire talks to the managers, and I listen to their conversation eagerly. Claire was truly an amazing person. The way she managed everything so effortlessly and professionally, you tend to admire her. Even though she was younger than 75% of the people on this island, she had a persona that made you follow her. I cross off things from the list on the clipboard she had given me, and once everything is done, she tells me to follow her into the back.

I get a little confused. "Um, Claire, why are we here?"

"I thought that you would like to see the baby tricera-"

"OH MY GOD! YOU HAVE-"

Claire quickly places her hands over my mouth and pushes me inside the office.

"What was that for?" I ask her breathlessly.

"How about shouting a little louder Amber? Next time, make sure the entire island is able to hear you."

I look down sheepishly at my feet. "Um, sorry about that."

"Whatever, anyways, I brought you here so you could maybe experience how the hatching works."

"Wow. This is so exciting. But what about Owen? I mean wouldn't he want to see this too?"

"Don't worry about that- Ah, Dr. Winchester!"

Claire waved over to a young man in his late 20s with brown hair. Recognizing Claire, he waved back at us. Claire motions for him to come over to us. He acknowledges and walks over to us.

"Hey boss, what's up?" he asks Claire and smiles at me. In that moment, I knew I was head over heels. Those hazel eyes were soo dreamy… I got so lost in his eyes that my brain forgot to process that he was talking to me.

"- you be?" I stare a bit more. Suddenly I jerk back to reality.

"Oh hi, um, Gramber, I mean Grant, Amber Grant!"

"Wow, it's so nice to meet the famous Amber Grant! What brings you to my humble, err, lab?"

I giggle. _What was wrong with me, I never giggle!_

"Oh nothing, just here on a-"

Claire clears her throat once again.

"Excuse me, I'd like to get back to work, yeah? Sam? We've got work to do."

"Right right, follow me please ladies," he adds that last part with a wink. Aww, he was so adorable… Claire rolls her eyes and takes the lead, mumbling something about immature subordinates or something.

"So, what do you make of this new park?" he asks me.

"Well, it's pretty improved, I'll give you that."

"Oh. So why are you here?"

"I'm not sure exactly myself, I think it's project HUBRIS or something?"

He laughs. Like the make-my-knees-go-dizzy sort of laugh. "I think you mean to say IBRIS." There was a gentle pause. "Wait a minute, you're on the Raptors!"

"Yeah, right." I nervously run my fingers through my hair.

"Wow, well I can't wait to see how that works out!"

"Neither can I, Sam." I add, a little flustered. Second fanboy I've met. But hey, at least I remembered his name.

"Yeah, well Lilith's a pro."

I was about to add something snarky, but decide against it. I kind of liked this guy. He being tall wasn't a minus either. I needed to make a good impression. Also, we had arrived at the incubators, which I didn't want to miss.

"So here we are, the triceratops eggs." He turns around and bends near one of the incubators, with some big eggs..

"Did you know that all of the dinosaurs are female?"

"Yeah, you tend to remember this sort of stuff when you were actually the first to see them." I add sarcastically. The guy kept on smiling. Either he was really dumb, or he was extremely used to sarcasm.

"Well, all of them have hatched except for this little girl." The shell starts cracking.

Even Sam goes 'Awww' when it pushes out a tiny little limb out of the shell. Slowly and steadily, it comes out ; however, there is still a piece of shell stuck to its head which makes it look even more adorable. Sam puts on a pair of gloves and gently lifts the baby triceratops in his hand, although it was pretty large. Claire gently strokes the baby triceratops with her fingers. It sneezes and then runs off, startled.

"I think I'm going to call her, um, Amber." he adds shyly. Claire looks at him with a bored expression, like she knew that was coming.

I almost kiss him then and there.

 _Won't that be cheating on Owen though?_

Where did that come from? What is he doing in my head? Get out inner Amber.

"Hey Sammy? What's up man? What're you- Hell-o ladies." Another man, slightly shorter than Sam, but with a hella different attitude walks in. He actually goes as far as to wink at Claire.

"And who might you be?" he asks me.

"Grant. Amber Grant."

"Well, nice to meet you ma'am, I'm-"

"Just about to leave," Sam interjects, and pushes his colleague away mouthing a 'sorry' in my direction. After he takes care of that he comes back to talk to us.

"Yeah, that's my brother Dean. He's what you might call a, um-"

"We understand just fine, Sam, thank you." Claire says. There is a long bout of silence.

Anyways, after he cleans her up, Sam takes Amber the triceratops to a room at the back and bids us farewell.

"So Amber," Claire began as we walked out to where the car was parked. "What happened back there?" she adds with a knowing look.

"Okay, fine, but he was cute!" I tried to protest.

Claire shrugged, and unlocked the car. "Get in, I'll drop you back to your house." I sigh and get inside the door.


	10. The Head-Quarters

Claire drives back to Headquarters. I still can't get over the holographic dinosaurs, they get me every time. However, for the first time, Claire allows me to actually visit _The office._ The Stage. Where everything runs according to Claire's exact instructions, down to a T. Wow, this was a surreal experience.

Claire tells me to take grab chair and sit down while she goes and brings more paperwork. Which I will undoubtedly have to complete. Now I realize what mom meant to say. I really feel like a secretory.

After Claire sets down the huge pile of paperwork in front of me, she goes and talks with another man. The more I stare at the man, the more I feel that I've seen him somewhere. Yet, I still fail to add a name or place to that face.

"I thought you were more into guys your own age." A man sitting in the chair behind me says. I turn around, to see the owner of the voice.

"No, I wasn't staring; I just thought I saw him somewhere." I explain to him.

"Oh really? You must be new then. That guy gets on everyone's nerves. Anyways, I'm Lowery."

"Nice to meet you. You must be the guy who screwed up the paperwork of my bungalow." That shuts him up.

"Yeah, sorry bout that. You must be Amber Grant, right?"

"Yep," I get up to stretch my legs. I move a little closer to his table. "What's with the plastic dinosaur collectibles, man?"

"Finally! Someone who calls them collectibles and not toys!" he swivels around his chair and talks to a pretty blonde girl. "Hey Vivian! I told you someone would know the difference. I believe you owe me 20 dollars."

The girl named Vivian sighs, and takes out her purse. Lowery is air-fisting. Huh.

"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "By the way, could you sign my Jurassic Park t-shirt? "

"Do they still have those?"

"Got it off ebay for 150$. You do not want to know how I got that."

"Ok. So what do you actually even do here?"

"Take names, kick ass, you know the usual stuff."

I raise my eyebrow at him. "Really?"

"Um no, I'm more of a tech-support guy. I monitor the systems."

"Uh- huh. Nice. I bet you already know what I do."

"How are the raptors coming up?"

"Yeah, I guess they're going good. Oh and hey Lowery, I can see Claire coming here, so I need you to do me one last favour."

"And that would be?"

"I need a freaking car. A Jeep or Hummer would be nice. Just get me any good 4x4, 'Kay? I REALLY NEED THIS!" I say that last part I little too loud, which makes it look like I'm threatening the poor guy.

"Jeez, woman, fine, I'll do it." I smile at him. He sighs, and starts doing something on his computer.

As soon as Claire notices me, she calls me over. I promptly get up and go over to her.

"Yeah boss. What's up boss?" I greet her. She rolls her eyes.

"You're done working for me now."

I pale. "Are you- are you firing me?"

"What? No, no, no, I mean to say is that you get the day off tomorrow. Prepare for the hatching."

"WHAT!" I practically scream. I few passers-by look at me like I suddenly grew a second head. Lowery is trying very hard to hold in his laughter. I glare at him. He backs off.

"Keep it down, Amber. You heard me. You grab Owen and take the bus home. Have a good night's rest, okay? I need both of you to be here tomorrow at precisely 8 A.M." she finishes and walks away. I shrug my shoulders and set off for the exit. Well, a holiday's a holiday, isn't it?

The first thing I do after Claire releases me is go to the gourmet restaurant. Owen can wait. Hot food first, hot guys come later.

 _You actually referred to Owen as a hot guy._

Holy shit, I did. This was not supposed to happen. Oh boy, I needed that car as soon as I can. Then I can live inside it and stay away from that muscular idiot.

Before I know it, my feet carry me to the restaurant and I grab a chair and collapse on it. Even though I just started working for Claire around the last week, the whole experience was exhausting. What I told you was just the last day at work. Every day I had to sit in her office and do paperwork; and when I was done with that, I had to join her on her routine checks.

"Would you like to order, madam?" the waiter asks me, his ensemble complete with the towel and the tray of wine.

"Oh, uh, could I see the menu?" I ask him without actually looking at him.

"Sure, here you go." He sets a menu down on my table.

I scan over the prices and feel the hole in my pocket grow. Umm, 100$ for a filet mignon sounded a bit too much. I decide to go for a humble and affordable salad instead.

"I'll have the, uh, Quail salad with pomegranate."

"Of course madam. May I interest you in any of our wines?"

"Uhm, sure. Do you have champagne?" I ask him. That was the only wine I knew and liked.

"Yes madam. It will be brought to you shortly."

I thank him and he takes away my menus. I start playing with my fork, having nothing better to do. Wow, I was in a 5 star restaurant and I was playing with my cutlery. What is wrong with me?

He later fills my flute with champagne, and I start drinking it. I liked the bubbly taste, it was like drinking bubbles.

Just when I begin to fall into the pit of everlasting boredom, my salad arrives. It wasn't much, but I hoped it would do the trick. I put the first piece of quail in my mouth and I instantly melt. This salad was really good! Before I know it, I finish the entire plate.

When the waiter comes back to clear my plate, I thank him.

"That was one great salad! Please convey my compliments to the chef!"

"Are you an employee at Jurassic world, madam?"

"Um, yeah, why?"

He smiles at me. " Employees eat free ma'am, no charge."

My eyes nearly pop out of my socket. I don't remember what happened next but at that moment I decide that's it. I'm never cooking again.

I tip the waiter very generously and take to the road, skipping along. I hadn't skipped since I was what, 10? People start giving me weird looks, but I couldn't care less. I was getting gourmet food for free! Why didn't Claire mention this before? I was going to celebrate this day! I grab the bus and go back home. I was definitely going to need my rest to face those terrible terrors tomorrow. Oh boy, are we screwed.

By the time I get home, Owen is already there for a change, huh.

"Hey Owen, did you get the news?" I ask him, setting down my bag and kicking off my shoes.

"What? Don't tell me the Yankees won over Boston Red Sox, I can't handle more depressing news."

"What? I don't follow Major League Baseball. Anyways, We're supposed to go nice and early tomorrow. At 8." I tell him, flinging off my jacket to another corner of the room.

"Where?" he now takes a break from watching the T.V to actually look at me.

"I'll tell you if I get to ride the bike." I smile at him seductively. It may not have a 100% efficiency rate, Okay, fine it had like a 20% efficiency rate, but that shouldn't stop you, right?

"I can live without knowing." He neutrally replies and goes back to watching the match.

"Sure, suit yourself." I shrug my shoulders. Well, at least I tried. Too bad, Owen Grady.


	11. The Hatching

The next day I'm up at the crack of dawn for a change. I thought I felt confident, but I was never more underprepared for anything. Except for that one time in college when I forgot the date of my first final exam and ended improvising all the answers. Surprisingly, that was the only paper where I got more than 95%. Who knows? Maybe I'll crack this. I quickly get dressed and cook some breakfast. Because I'm feeling generous I even cook some eggs for Owen. If the idiot wakes up.

He finally does, thankfully, and barges into the kitchen looking like a very dazed moose.

"Are you alright Owen?" I ask him, concerned.

"Coffee, I need coffee." He murmurs and zombie-walks to the coffee-machine. He's still groggy after his first sip. I shrug and pick on my toast. There is silence.

After I finish I wash my plate at the sink. I grab another plate and serve Owen his eggs.

"One cheese omelet for the drunk dude."

He looks surprised. "Gee thanks, you're not such a bitch after all."

There goes my happy mood. I glance at the clock on the wall. It was 7. We had some time to kill.

"So Owen, there are some things we need to discuss." I begin. Owen looks at me open his mouth while still chewing his omelet. Disgusting.

"Whrewhgt?"

"House rules."

"What?"

"Well, if you want to live a happy life without any late night pranks or blow horns or chainsaws or creepy clowns-"

"I get the point sweetheart."

"Exactly. So-," I grab a paper and draw a pen from my pocket. "Rule number one." I look at his dish. "Always wash your own dish after eating."

He groans. "Fine. I get to choose the next rule." Okay, I can work with that. I write the first rule on the paper.

"No trespassing in the other's room."

"Sure." I write that down as well.

" Number three. No one night stands."

"AW COME ON." He slams his spoon on the table.

I roll my eyes. "Seriously dude? We've been here for like three weeks and you've already slept with someone?"

"Um, no, I was- Okay fine I have don't look at me like that!"

I write that rule on the paper and underline it. "Too bad you aren't going to be doing that now darling."

 _Jealous much?_

Shut up Inner me no one asked you.

"Fine. Next rule's mine."

"Well shoot." I taunt him.

"Never bring the raptors home."

"What are you nuts or something? Why would you even want to do that?"

"Forget it."

Nevertheless, I write it down. Better safe than sorry, right?

"How do you want our relationship to be sweetheart?" he asks me out of the blue.

I freeze. "What?"

"You heard me the first time. How do you want our relationship to be? Strictly business, friends, I don't mind the benefits part, something more-"

"Friends. Actually, only associates will do."

"You're breaking my heart, babe. Are you really sure?" he winks at me. I lean forward, almost as if ready to kiss him. He moves ahead, as if in anticipation, but then I wipe the ketchup dribbling from his lip.

"Definitely." I wink at him.

"NOT FAIR." He yells at me.

"Well darling, haven't you heard? Everything's fair in love and war."

"And this is?" he asks.

"Rule number 5. No Sleeping with each other."

"Although that's probably for the best. You wouldn't be able to keep your hands off me if we got second base." He smirks.

"That's a big 'if' Owen Grady. I have high standards." I look at the clock again. Well great, we now had half an hour before Claire murders us. But no pressure.

"I think you should wear something more appropriate, Owen. I don't think going in PJs is going to work for Claire."

"So this is a Claire thing! You tell me now!" He groans and dumps his plate in the sink. Then he sulks off upstairs.

"Hey Mister! Don't forget to do the dishes!"

"Yes, mom." The Sarcasm dripped off his tongue.

I attach our newly formed rules on the fridge with a magnet. There. Although I highly doubt we'll ever be following any of them.

 _You mean you hope-_

I grab my jacket and walk out the door, shrugging of all unwelcome thoughts.

When I open the garage, I knew I was going to have to threaten Lowery. My car was still not there. That meant I had to either walk, or ride behind Owen. The bus didn't arrive till 8, which was exactly when I needed to reach.

Owen followed me soon enough; but he was totally unfazed by our current share-the-motorcycle situation. When I blatantly refuse to sit behind him, he begins to convince me.

"Come on, sweetheart, we'll be fine." Owen says, but I have already had my fair share of accidents. I don't want anymore.

"How about no?"

He sighs. "Fine, then how do you plan on reaching there on time?" Okay, he had a point there.

"None of your business." I sternly tell him and start walking.

"Look sweetheart, the way to HQ is the other way." He grins at me. _Oh just you wait you spawn of satan._

I stomp my feet. "FINE!" I scream at him and start walking in the correct direction this time.

Owen rolls his eyes. "Stop being so dramatic Sweetheart, I promise to drive safer this time," he says. "Look I even got an extra helmet!" he lifts another helmet and shoves it in my face. "Safety!"

I contemplated my choices.

Walking would help me get thinner.

 _Yeah, but at what cost? Do you want to face the wrath of Claire?_

NO No No, absolutely not. Not Claire. And the exercise point seems valid too….

 _Also, you get to spend some time with your-_

Shut up. Fine. Maybe I was being childish.

I reluctantly swing my leg over the seat and snap the clasp of my helmet.

"NO accidents please Owen. I still am young and beautiful." I remind him.

"Course Amber."

Surprisingly, we reached HQ without broken bones. Hooray! Also, we had just over 5 minutes before Claire would murder us, so we were safe. Just as we walk out the elevator at HQ, Claire pushes us right back in it. She presses a button, and we go right back down.

"Good, you guys made it. Now we're running a little late, so you guys need to hurry up. Owen, I hope Amber told you that the Raptors hatch today. If she forgot," Claire glares at me. "-well then you know now."

The elevator opens. Owen looks at me shocked. "Why didn't you tell me?" he kind of whisper-shouts at me. Claire starts moving, so both of us follow her.

"You're the one who told me you didn't want to know!" I whisper-shout back at him, trying to keep up with Claire.

"Communication sweetheart! This sorta stuff is important."

I open my mouth to retort but Claire turns around so both of us instantly shut up. Claire rummages through her purse and throws something at me. I barely catch it.

"Here are the keys to your car Amber. That Jeep Rubicon over there is yours. Owen, Amber, follow me to the hatchery."

Awesome! I run over to my car and jump into the driver's seat. I start the engine. Jeep purrs like a cat.

"Okay baby, now let's get to business." I accelerate, and follow Claire's car closely.

Claire perfectly parallel parks her car while I am left to park my baby with almost no experience. Damn, I'm so late. Owen hops out along with Claire, grinning at me smugly. I retort with an equally smug glare filled with burning hatred. There. You. Go.

'Bear with me baby," I mouth to my Jeep. "Just a little more…"

Luckily baby doesn't really struggle against me, and I am able to parallel park it. I grab my bag and leap out of the car. I ran like I was being chased by wolves.

Since we actually have our IDs this time, we are immediately granted access to the hatchery. Claire was already ahead of me and so was Owen, by a small margin. I quicken my pace to catch up to them. Owen is still giving me the cold shoulder. Fine, I guess I deserved that. Owen wasn't going to forgive me anytime soon.

Claire whisks us back to the section where we saw the egg. Now there were 4. Each egg is a different color, but the one which catches my eye is the blue one.

"I see you like the blue egg, Amber," A smooth voice says to me. Lilith. Of course.

"Well blue is my favourite color, so yeah." I smile back at her.

Claire hands Owen and me a pair of gloves each, effectively breaking the mind war between me and my ex-cabin mate.

"Thank you Claire," I pull them on, the rubber smacking my hands. Owen pulls them on as well.

"Be careful while handling the eggs. They can hatch anytime," Lilith warns us.

I gently touch the blue egg. It was difficult to imagine that a catastrophic killing machine would be born from such a tiny egg. Technically, I had been present during the hatching of the triceratops, butI could tell that this one was different.

Owen on the other hand is softly caressing the brown egg. It was quite adorable to see Mr. I'm-a-macho-man-who-doesn't-have-feelings actually be soft with such a delicate thing.

 _He would make a great father._

A what? Um, no. let's not go there inner Amber. MISSION ABORT. I'm not having kids anytime soon.

 _Who said it was yours?_

Shut up!

"The red egg is engineered on the base genes of the Argentine Red Tegu. The green one-" Lilith explains as she picks up the light green egg, effectively breaking me from my thoughts. "- is modelled on the Malagasy giant chameleon. The blue one is based on the Black-throated monitor. And the brown egg-" she gestures to the one Owen was whispering to. "That's based on the Komodo dragon."

"Oh. How much do the base genes affect the raptors?" Owen asks, gently returning the egg back to the nest-like structure.

"Well since this is our first time actually creating them, we'll just have to wait and watch." Lilith nonchalantly replies.

"Interesting," I add. "On a scale of 1-10 how likely are we to die?"

Claire looks at us with surprise. Lilith laughs. "Probably 7," she says.

Just then, the brown one which Owen put back in the incubator starts shaking.

Lilith is almost about to burst from excitement. "Anytime now…"

Owen and I lean closer towards the nest. Claire is excited too, though she would never admit it.

A tiny crack runs through the base to the top of the egg, and very carefully a small claw peeks out of the shell. The baby raptor slowly eases its way out of the egg, and carefully wiggles out of the shell.

"Okay," Lilith whispers. "Amber and Owen, don't move from this place. They're going to imprint on you, so be very still. It will approach either one of you, but that won't mean that it won't recognize the other later."

Claire and Lilith slowly back away and exit the room. Meanwhile, the tiny raptor has already escaped the egg and is now slowly approaching us. It was such an adorable little thing, for some reason I wanted to pick it up and snuggle with it.

 _Bad idea amber. Do you have a death wish?_

Hey, just expressing my opinion inner Amber. Like you wouldn't want to do that.

The baby raptor slowly approaches me and I try to bring nudge it towards me. "C'mon little girl, come on. Mommy's got you…" I beckon her towards me.

Owen is simply standing by my side, hands crossed across his chest, watching on. I could tell he was amused.

Just as the baby raptor is about to approach me, it turns and slowly walks towards Owen. I glare at the little dinosaur; but it pays no attention to me. Instead, it focuses solely on Owen.

I was conflicted. Do I marvel at this cute little monster or be jealous of Owen? I decide to be the better person and I encourage the little dinosaur to walk toward Owen.

"Go on little Brownie, you're almost there..." I murmur to the baby velociraptor. Owen breaks eye contact with the dino to look at me.

"Hey, teamwork, remember?" I remind him.

"Sure," he smirks at me "Keep on telling yourself that." Just as the Raptor is halfway through, I hear another crack.

Both of our necks swiftly turn to see another egg cracking. This egg was a little smaller than the brown one's, but the baby raptor is much faster. It quickly escapes its shell. As Owen tackles Brownie, the next sibling stumbles over its tail in order to keep up with Brownie. Looks like Owen was going to be the Alpha. Owen gently picks up Brownie and caresses it. Brownie coos in contentment. The younger raptor instantly changed colour from its dusty green to a much darker green. This must be the one based on the Chameleon.

"Owen pick her up too; she's jealous," I tell Owen to pick up the raptor on the table, attempting to jump.

"I have only two hands, and Brownie here doesn't want to let go of me anytime soon." He replies, annoyed. I laugh.

I gently pick up the distressed raptor. Thankfully, its claws are not very sharp, and I was also wearing gloves. While she does struggle a lot and claws me multiple times, I manage to hold her steady. She has the most beautiful skin. From what I know about Chameleons, as babies, they won't be able to change colours as easily as their adult counterparts, and if they do, the colour change isn't that noticeable. However, this one is a mix of raptor and chameleon, so I figured this one would mature much quickly.

She eyes me carefully, probably wondering if I was good enough to eat. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true. However, after some time, she stops struggling and lies down peacefully in my hands.

"Hey Owen, let's call this one Melon."

Owen almost drops Brownie. "What? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of."

"She has Chameleon DNA, right?" I scratch the underside of Melon's neck. She purrs.

"Well yeah," he says. Upon seeing Melon's reaction to the neck scratching, Owen tries the same with Brownie, but she almost jumps out of Owen's hands. "Whoah there, Brownie. Don't want you dying, now, do we?"

I laugh. "Well, Melon's almost like a ripe watermelon, so I think I'm going to call her that."

"Okay." He gently sets Brownie back on the table and into the nest.

I hand over Melon to Owen, carefully. Melon however does not trouble Owen as much as she did when she was with me. Traitor.

While Owen is happily playing with Melon, I notice that the Red egg has a really bad crack, running all the way from the cross section of the egg. There was some liquid seeping out of the shell. This was bad.

"Um Lilith?" I call out nervously. "Is um, red okay?" I point to the damaged egg.


	12. The Raptor

Lilith's eyes widen when she sees it. "Joey! Kartik! Get me the gene lab RIGHT NOW!" she shouts at two assistants who promptly stop fiddling with their tools and run off. I wish I had such a powerful voice. From what I was seeing though, I realize that something bad had happened to Red.

The people from the Gene Lab arrive only a few minutes later and delicately pick up little Red. By this time, we are actually able to see the whites running out of the crack.

Joey mouths to me, "This is real bad. Worse than the time we tried to replicate Rexy."

"You did what?" These guys experimented on the T-Rex?

"Oh sorry. Forget I said anything." Joey whispers back. No amount of nagging from my side, however, forces him to divulge this valuable piece of information.

"Dear associates," the man from the Gene lab begins to speak, stopping me from formulating the perfect plan to get Joey to talk. That can wait.

"With great regret I inform you that the velociraptor engineered on the Argentine Red Tegu base has failed to survive." He continued. Then there is chaos. An accountant argues with a scientist and a briefly hear the words 'asset damage' and 'loss of billions'. Claire is screaming orders at everyone and is also halfway through a phone call. Damn, she really does need an assistant and that too soon.

Then I look at the poor damaged egg, already way past gone. Another life wasted by people trying to play god. I still feel bad even though the creature was barely alive. An hour in our actual job and we had already lost a member of our pack. I don't whether to be happy or sad.

Owen had his attention trained on a totally different object. I glance over to see what could possibly be more important than a broken egg, when I realise- the blue egg was hatching. Claire notices too, and she calms everyone down as a little claw peeks out from the blue shell. Slowly, steadily, it comes out of the shell.

I remove the unwanted pieces of shell from its body, as I coax it out of the egg. "Come on little one, come on," I nudge the little raptor out. Owen is standing close, smiling. He puts Melon back in to the nest.

The tiny raptor places one step, another step, and then it locks eyes with me. Oh boy.

"Uh, Owen?" I call out for my partner.

"Yeah?" he whispers back.

"Come here for a minute. I want to see something. Let's see where this one goes." Owen obliges.

Both of us crouch down to the level of the new baby dinosaur. It had very intelligent, observant eyes; as if it was waiting for you to reveal your weakness and then take you down. It gently walked toward us, not breaking eye-contact with me. I don't shift my gaze anywhere else either. Its walk slowly turns into a run, and before I know it, it curled up in the palm of my hand, willing for me to pet it. I oblige. This one was a different one.

"Blue," Owen said.

"What?" I momentarily break eye contact with the baby raptor to face him.

"Blue. It fits her," he pointed to the side of her neck. "See this stripe down here?"

"Okay, if you say so." I caress Blue. She purrs with contentment, nuzzling my hand.

Blue was the smallest of the pack, but she seemed to be the most intelligent. I gently put her back into the nest.

The nest is more like a glass box with some straw in it for insulation. Melon was trying to jump out of the box, while Brownie, I don't even know how it managed to get stuck between all that straw. I chuckle. Blue on the other hand; I couldn't make sense of her movements until Owen steps down to peer into the glass box.

"She's _scouting her way out."_ I lean closer. _She actually was._

"Smart girl," he commented. God, Blue's intense stare makes me want to back away immediately.

"That one's going to be a trouble-maker." I tell Owen.

Lillith comes back, with 3 small electronic devices and syringe-like injectors.

"These are their trackers," she explains. "They'll help us to monitor the velociraptors' movements, you know, in case _they escape._ Which I'm fully sure might happen left in the care of you. _"_ I know she directed that last little comment to me, but Owen interjects before I could say anything.

"Nah, I have Amber here to help me." He grabs me closer to him. Lillith was greener than an embarrassed Vulcan.

She grabs Melon, pulls back her leg and injects the tracker into the baby raptor's skin. I wince. That did not appear to be very pleasant for the baby raptor, because Melon starts clawing her way out. Lillith does the same for Brownie, but Brownie does not react as violently. Blue on the other hand, manages to scratch Lillith's unprotected arm, which makes her drop the needle.

Owen bends down to pick the injector and puts it back in Lillith's hand. "There you go." He winks.

This time, Lillith takes extreme precaution, then jabs the needle into Blue's shoulder. Blue, however, does not wince even once. Once Lillith wraps up everything and sets the dinosaur back in their Nest; she turns her back at me and leaves, but not before muttering something in Owen's ear. Owen smirks at her.

I wanted to know what she told him, but before I can ask him he walks out and I have to run to keep up with him. All I can think of is that Blue is my favorite baby out of all of them.

* * *

"So how does it feel, Mr. Alpha?" I ask Owen later, when I catch up to him.

"Well, won't you like to _know._ " He smirks.

"Shut up, ya idiot." I playfully smack him.

Claire comes over to us, after the chaos ensues again. "Well, congratulations. You guys are official now. No more assistant work for you Amber."

"I'd _always_ choose working with velociraptors over being your assistant, Claire," I add. We laugh.

"No, but seriously guys," Claire continues. "We've already lost one raptor, _we do not want to lose anymore._ We'll probably maybe make another batch, but that'll take almost six months or something. Probably even more."

"So, what exactly do we have to do?" Owen asks her, placing his hands on his hips. "Make these things mac-and-cheese? Read them a bedtime story when they go to sleep?"

Claire was not amused. "No. What I'm saying is that you idiots need to pull your act together, and work as a team-

"Remember, they've imprinted on you, but you have to spend as much time as you can with them to further strengthen that bond. That way-" she pointedly looks at Owen. "they'll be more cooperative and you will be at less risk for being eaten."

"So, what next?" I ask Claire.

"Well, we hired you only to aid research. Owen's going to be the pack leader-"

"The Alpha," Owen mouths to me. I roll my eyes. He smirks.

Claire ignores us. "which means Amber, you are only to record and write down the behavior of these animals. Owen, you on the other hand, are in charge of the field work. Amber, actually, all three of them were meant to be imprinted on Owen, but since Blue's taken a liking to you, I suggest you help out Owen only when absolutely necessary."

 _I can do zat!_

Careful inner Amber, your Chekov is showing.

Although, no field work sounded boring, it was probably for the best. I got to watch the whole show from behind the glass. I could live with that.

The raptors would mature at around a year or so, but that was plenty enough time for us to figure them out. Yep, this raptor pack could work out.

* * *

Later, I give everyone a free ride via my Jeep to HQ. Claire immediately drops a huge stack of paper-work in my arms, and Owen has to deal with some of his own as well.

"Take care of my paper-work for me too, please?" he asks me, with those irresistible puppy eyes, but I invented puppy eyes and so I was able to resist. The trick is simple. Just look at the stack of papers covering my face.

"Nope," I reprimand him, popping the 'p'.

"Claire," I continue. "Why exactly do we have so much paper-work? I get my part but Owen's only in on the field work, right?"

"Well, they cover immunization, daily activity, diet and everything, really, you know?"

"So are you telling me I have to fill in these every day?"

"Yeah, what you're looking at is paper-work just for the week. Since the animals are young, you're only objective is getting them to bond with you."

"Oh."

"You haven't seen Amara yet. She trains the T. rex."

"Well, I gotta meet this girl someday. Damn, training the t. rex!" Owen adds.

"So, like do we go home now?" I ask Claire.

"Yeah, I mean, unless you want to help me out with-"

I immediately cut her off. "Nope, I'm good. I'll find you an assistant, don't worry." I reassure her.

"I don't need one." Claire added stubbornly. "I'm-"

"Yeah we know. However, We-" Owen points at the two of us. "We're going home."

I was kind of mad at Owen for assuming that I'd be following him back, but at this point, I don't really want to work for Claire anytime soon, so I'm with Owen on this one.

"Yep," I add. "We are."

* * *

Owen and I go back home with our respective vehicles; Owen on his motorcycle, and me in my Jeep. Our garage was big enough to house both of our vehicles; well my car took up most of the space, really. Owen's bike could fit in almost anywhere.

"Hey Owen," I ask him as I opened the door. "Do you think we should have an office in the house?"

He looks at me, bewildered. "What?"

"An office, you know. It'll make it easier for us to work. Everything related to work goes in that specific room."

He thinks about it for a while. "Okay, I guess."

I push the door and step in, dropping the papers on the coffee table. Owen follows suit, and both of us collapse on the sofa at the same time.

"We have the rest of the day off…" I begin.

"Do you want to start on that office of yours?" he asked me.

"You start. I'll be help in a few."

"Whatever you say, sweetheart." Owen smiles. It was that kind of smile that made you want to melt into yourself. I dunno, I guess I didn't hate him as much as I did anymore. He actually was really nice.

 _Stop being mushy! Woman up, Amber._

But you were the one who always-

 _No matter. It is my duty to keep you on the right track._

Really? I never would've guessed. Inner Amber does not reply back. Oh well.

"So Owen," I begin. "What was all that hush-hush thing with Lillith?"

"Nothing," he waves dismissively.

I raise my eyebrow. "Okay man, keep your secrets." I decide to bother him another time. But if this was what I thought it was then _well, a call with my best friend was long overdue._


	13. The Pasta

**A.N- Yeah, so this is where some MAJOR things happen, so let me know if you think this is going to fast. I'm kinda losing inspiration for this little ficlet and I want to wrap things up... But I don't want to leave you unsatisfied or anything. Also, thank you all my lovelies who followed, favorited and REVIEWED!**

 **REVIEWS ARE WHAT MAKE MY DAY! DO leave a review!**

* * *

"Hey Charlie!" I greet my best friend.

A week had passed, and the baby raptors had become a _nightmare._ We thought that falconry gloves would make the cut, but after a nasty incident with Brownie [note to self: never give velociraptors sugar. If they ingest sugar, get out of the room as fast as possible and barricade the doors.] they had us wear special chainmail gloves. Or at least that's what they felt like. But those made it very difficult to use our fingers, and controlling raptors was out of question. While Brownie and Melon were total daddy's girls, Blue's trust was still yet to be earned. She had a particularly vicious streak, and absolutely hated to listen to us. However, she responded slightly better to my instructions than Owens, and he was so hung up about it, he didn't talk to me for two days.

But finally, they had given us the weekend off, so that our fingers would recover, and hopefully they would find better gloves. I won't mind a full body-suit either.

But anyways, we had the day off, and it was finally time to catch up with my best friend.

Charlie smiles back from the screen. "Looking good, Amber! So give me everything. Where are you even working? What are you doing? When are you-"

I laugh. "Take it easy Charlie! One at a time!" I could see his face turn red even in the bad quality of our video-chat.

"But to answer your questions, I'm working at a- _renowned_ dinosaur amusement park. I'm pretty sure you'll know _all about it_." I add an accusatory undertone.

Charlie looks very uncomfortable. "Uh- This is- I hope not- Mesozoic Menagerie?"

I roll my eyes. "No Charlie," I smile evilly. "I work at Jurassic World. Care to share why you missed out the part where your _ex-girlfriend_ also works here?"

"Hey! I didn't know where you were going!"

"Yeah Charlie, sure. Like I didn't beg Aunt Ellie to tell me every single detail about Jurassic Park when I told her that I'll be going to Jurassic World and that you weren't-"

"Okay fine, you got me." He folds his arms across his chest. "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, it would've been nice to have a friend here. Lillith seems to hate me, for some unfathomable reason. What did you do, Charlie?" I ask him, accusingly.

"I-" he fidgets with the hem of his shirt. "I may or may not have told her-"

"Hey Amber!" Owen calls out from behind me. "Who's this?" Excellent. Count on my idiotic room-mate to ruin what could've been the most game-changing moment of my life.

"No one Grady, now get lost." I tell him off.

"Who's that?" Charlie's voice echoes from behind me.

"Fine. Charlie, meet Grady; Grady, meet Charlie." I quickly introduce them.

"FYI, I'm actually called Owen. Amber however-" Owen clarifies and grins at me. "She calls me d-"

"Shut up!" I glared at Owen.

"So, Owen, what do you do? Why are you with Amber?" Charlie asks Owen, clearly annoyed at the interruption of our conversation. Can't say a lot about _Mr. Grady._

"I'm her partner. We train-" If there was any way to convey ' _DO NOT MENTION THE RAPTORS. IF YOU DO I WILL KILL YOU, YOUR CHILDREN, AND YOUR GRAND CHILDREN'S CHILDREN'_ I would have, but a simple glare did the trick. Owen understands and immediately tries to cover up what he said.

"-I mean we trained together. No we do partner-stuff" he finishes off. _Partner stuff?_

"Partner stuff?" Charlie was confused. "Are you two like-"

"No we are not. Anyways, you were telling me something?" I interrupt them.

"Yeah, um, can we talk in _private_?" Charlie was clearly uncomfortable around Owen. Or was that jealousy?

Owen gets the message. "Okay guys, I'm out. Yeesh, such defensive friends you've got with you sweetheart." He gets up and goes to the kitchen. "I'll be cooking Pasta," He adds.

Charlie looks at me accusingly after Owen is completely out of sight. "Are you like, sleeping with him or something?"

You know that ringing sound that you hear when everything is quiet and there is actually nothing making the sound? Yeah, well that was exactly what I was feeling.

"What?"

Charlie turns red. "Nothing. Just thought he said you called him-"

"Oh no. oh no no no no no. _Get your head out of the gutter man!_ " I retort back. Even the very thought makes me cringe.

 _Or does it?_

Yeah, no one asked you. Shut up Inner A.

"Hey! You were the one who was suggesting-" Charlie defends himself, but I quickly cut him off.

"Doesn't matter. Now tell me _what did you do to Lillith?_ " I quickly change the subject _._ I did not want to be talking about my relationship with Mr. Grady. Or lack thereof.

"I told you before Amber! I didn't love her anymore." He defends

"Oh, so you said the L-word before breaking up, did ya? Stupid, you should never ever do that Charlie. Please tell me you didn't say ' _It's not you, it's me!'"_

Charlie looks down. There is a large amount of silence.

"Awesome. You said that. Please tell me you left her because you wanted to get rid of her and not because of another girl involved."

He looks down and sighs. "Do you remember my college graduation party?"

I rack my brains but come up with nothing. I try to break it to him nicely, but my emotions are evident.

He runs his hand through his hair. "Well, along with the whole graduation thing, the juniors hold a dance of sorts. It's like Prom, but with way more decorum and etiquette and fancy wine. I had tried to invite _you_ as my date _,_ but-"

"I was working on a field assignment with dad. Yeah, I remember now, I had just applied for my PhD, hadn't I?"

"Yeah, so you weren't there, and I had to take someone, so-"

"You took Lillith?"

"Who wouldn't? She was pretty and smart."

"Okay?" I motion for him to continue.

"Yeah, and I was in a loss in the relationship department anyway. So when she popped the question, I accepted."

I open my mouth to retort but he cuts me off.

"Look, Amber, you know I'm not the best at connecting with people. I liked her, and I did eventually begin to care for her, and we were good for a while. But then she became way too invested in our whole relationship, I was pretty sure she was expecting me to propose!"

"And you didn't want that?"

"No!"

"Why? I mean she is, or at least _was_ a great girl. You're a great guy and you cared for her. Also, she loved, no I think she still _loves,_ you. I don't see a downside."

"I won't deny, we had some pretty great nights, seriously, she's very flexible-"

"Back to the point." I say, sternly. I was not interested in the _other aspect_ of Charlie' _s_ love life.

"Yeah, sorry. But I just wasn't… feeling the whole fireworks thing and everything."

"So you broke up with her? Cause there were no fireworks? Charlie, _do I need to take you to the hospital_?"

"I know what's going on in your mind Amber, but trust me, I only loved Lillith as a friend. Nothing more."

"So did you try, the _other side of the equation?"_ I wiggle my eyebrows, suggestively.

He looks at me with a dead expression. "Yes. I did."

"Was it 'good'?" I make double quotes with my fingers.

"I'm still sexually inclined towards girls, if that's what you mean."

"But no romantic feelings?"

"Nope."

"Okay, so you're not gay, you like sex with girls, but without strings?"

"Yeah. I looked it up, too. I'm Aromantic."

There's some silence.

"Well damn. I always wanted to be an aunt to baby Deglers."

"I never said you couldn't be one, Amber. Just that the kid wouldn't have a dad who loves his mom from a 'romantic' aspect. And no, I _will love_ the kid. Just like I love you. And mom and dad. "

"So you won't get married? Not even a girlfriend?"

"Nope."

"Okay."

"Okay? You aren't mad?"

"Why would I be? You're my best friend. I love you just as you are; just as you always have been. It's not like you're a secret psychopath, is it? Plus, you never getting a partner significantly reduces the pressure put on me for not getting one either."

He chuckles. "You're so selfish."

"Hey! Just doing my job of being the annoying best friend. By that way, does Aunt Ellie know?"

"Nope. I do plan on telling her, though I think she's going to be a little disappointed to know that she won't have a daughter-in-law. Dad doesn't really care much. He believes I can do whatever with my life. He doesn't intervene much."

Then it suddenly strikes me. My best friend's abrupt break up and Lillith's hatred towards me made sense.

I gulp. "You don't like, _like_ me, right?"

His smile immediately drops in frustration. He looks _very_ done. "I just told you Amber! Also, that's disgusting. You've always been like a sister to me. I won't lie, I did consider it once, but it just felt weird. I was kinda happy you didn't come when I asked you to the graduation dance. But," he pauses. "I noticed the way you look at your partner. Trust me Amber, he's very pretty, but weren't your eyes on-"

"Not another word!" I yell at him. "But why is Lillith so hostile?" I ask him to immediately change the subject. That part was still unclear.

"I don't really know. Here's my guess, though. Lillith knew about you, how you were going to be my first choice. She's probably angry because she thinks me being aromantic is just an excuse for breaking up with her. I tried to convince her, but I dunno what to do. Maybe, you should just work it out? Talk face to face?"

"You don't know much about girl world, do you Charlie?"

He grins. "Can't say I do."

"How do we know that she'll even believe me? She loves you but still doesn't trust you. Do you think that I'll be any better? She hates me!"

"Hey Sweetheart! Do you mind your pasta salty? Cause I accidently poured in half the container in it." Owen shouted from the kitchen. He is so bad at hand-eye co-ordination, I wonder how he even manages to hold a wrench.

"Stick a few potatoes in it!" I yell back. "Make sure you peel them first!" I add, for safety.

"So? What do I do?" I ask Charlie.

"Well, since you don't want to confront her directly- and I know she has a bad mean side so I get what you mean, but-"

"She avoids being in the same room as me!"

" _Fine._ You want to be passive-aggressive?" Charlie smirks. "Fake it."

"Fake what?"

"Show that you don't have any interest in me. 'Broaden your horizons.'"

"Are you asking me to- date someone?" I get the evil glint in his eyes now.

"Hey. I never said date. But sure, yeah, that works." It takes me a while to let that sink in. My eyes widen when I realize what Charlie meant to say.

"No. Not happening. No way on Earth am I going to date Owen. Nuh-uh." This was an absurd idea. I keep shaking my head. The very thought repulses me.

 _Does it, really? Yesterday you were thinking about lovely kids…_

Shut up, Inner Amber; No one wants your opinion.

 _Just helping hon…_

"Who said it had to be Owen?" Charlie grins, the same look in his eyes when we played pranks on Sarah.

I hate you so much Charlie. I hate you so so much.

"Plus, I've seen the way you look at each other. I'm just saying, it could work out-" he defends himself but I don't give him the chance.

"I hate you a lot Charlie. GOODBYE."

"I hate you too." He smiles. "So remember, you might want to-"

I end our call immediately, unable to bear his idiocy anymore.

 _You're just mad 'cause you actually might like dating him._

Inner Amber just sounded like Owen Grady. Boy, am I screwed.

* * *

 **So yeah, I have no experience with Ace/Aro... Did I do anything wrong? Please let me know my wonderful LGBTQI+ readers out there. Happy pride month!**


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